Training in Time
by atheistbasementdragon
Summary: NOTE: This is a branch story coming out of 'God Rising' if you have not read that, then this story will make no sense to you. Neia and Black Justice are now training in a frozen moment, building their strength for the arduous trials of the wrecked Holy Kingdom. How will the work in an endless moment, change the rest of their lives?
1. The Frozen Moment

**AN: This story fills a section merely summarized in 'God Rising: The Cult of Ainz' if you have not read that story, then this story will make no sense to you. 'God Rising' will be the trunk of a tree from which a number of branches spring, some stories will explore the consequences of the main one for people in the New World, others will fill gaps that the main story necessarily requires me to only summarize, expanding upon shortened scenes that had to be short otherwise it would completely change the main story focus. I hope you enjoy them all, but if you read them all and hated them...well...to late, you can't unread it. ;) As always, reviews are more than welcome.**

Neia did not facepalm often, but when she did, she did it hard enough to hurt. On this occasion, she was facepalming because her best archers had just shot some of her best close fighters in the back. The close fighters had leapt down from the wagons...right in front of the archers. As they were struck, a dark elf child that had not yet introduced herself, cast spells to paralyze those struck to simulate their deaths. Almost half of Black Justice had been incapacitated before the lizardman opposition forces had even made contact, and on this occasion, they didn't even make contact. They saw what happened, and laughed so hard they fell over.

'Reset!' Cocytus shouted.

The paralyze effect was dispelled, and the humans stood up, red faced and embarrassed one and all.

'I see the first problem.' Cocytus said.

'Me too.' Neia said in a tone that could not entirely conceal her sarcasm. But if Cocytus noticed that, he didn't mention it.

'I have seen your system practically applied individually, but your people have never had to guard anyone, or operate as if they were a single being, have they?' Cocytus asked.

'No.' Neia said. 'When we served against Jaldabaoth, as some of those who are here did, we stayed in a single formation and focused entirely upon the bow, they are brave, but they have never had to move as one, and until now, I have only trained them in individual combat. Though they are not as good as I am individually, they are still very good at that...but this is new.'

'They will need experience, they must grow as a unit and they must grow as individuals, we will begin slowly, until the motion becomes second nature.' Cocytus said.

For what then seemed like forever and a day, Black Justice did nothing but take position, reset, and take position again, archers firing a volley and sword specialists leaping down, over...and over...and over...and over again. The monotony of the exercise took its mental toll even though the rings of sustenance kept them from needing food, drink, or sleep. Many times Neia thought to herself, 'I wonder how many hours we've been at this?' only to remind herself that the concept of hours was meaningless when time was literally frozen for everybody else.

They practiced this one single maneuver until Cocytus was satisfied, only for Cocytus to say, 'Very good, now switch positions, those in, get out, those out, get in.' This resulted in a chorus of groans, which prompted Neia in turn to snap, 'None of that!' Her gaze swept over her following, 'The greatest force in all the world is giving us his time and resources to make us worthy of representing him in the wider world. The great and powerful do not groan at this, or at any adversity, the powerful, righteous, and just, only do what needs to be done, now take position!' Her shout had the vigor and the power of her conviction, and it sent a spine tingling sensation down the ears of her listeners.

As Ainz watched her through the mirror of remote viewing, he groaned at her words. 'She's a better speaker than I...but if she only knew how wrong she was.' He almost chuckled at the sheer frustration he felt in trying to take on the role of supreme leader, however he wasn't about to go and inform her of her profound error, even if he did so, he rather doubted she'd believe him.

Albedo approached with the gentle light steps of a courtly lady and stood beside Ainz, she looked into the mirror and saw Neia gesturing with her sword. She was pointing at various positions, shouting instructions to which the other humans of her band immediately responded. Ainz didn't speak, though he glanced at Albedo curiously, she hadn't said anything crude or insulting about Neia so far, she only watched as if gazing at a growing garden.

Ainz decided to break the silence first, 'What do you think? He asked.

Albedo smiled sweetly, 'I think she will do very well.'

Ainz could not widen his red eyes anymore, but if he could have, he would have. This was an unusual answer for Albedo.

'You think so?' Ainz asked.

Albedo tilted her head slightly, 'I do, after all, Ainz chose her, and her performance in Demiurge's test proved her absolute devotion, why when she was trying to kill herself because she thought you had conveyed the order for her to die, she reminded me of Shalltear begging for punishment, she screamed and screamed as she tried to pull the Dagger of Paradox into her heart and could not get it through, why I've seen Neuronist Painkill work, but I've never seen tortured screams like that before.'

'What?' Ainz said, a slight edge coming to his voice. 'Explain.' He commanded.

Albedo paused as she detected his change of tone.

'My lord Ainz, we were not sure we could trust her to put your will before her own, we had to know she was dedicated to you just as we are.' Albedo said with a somewhat shaken tone of voice as she detailed the events of the test.

'Are you saying you doubt my ability to win others to my cause? That I do not inspire loyalty in those not created to be loyal?'

Ainz asked, his voice had a hard tone, but inside he thought to himself, 'Shitshitshitshitshitshitshitshit! Those two, I'd have looked really bad if she failed, and I put so much work into that one!'

Albedo was already stumbling over her words as she failed to meet the gaze of her beloved Lord Ainz. 'No my lord, its just, well she is a human, they're not known for their loyalty, look how Fludur abandoned the child he raised, how Renner has betrayed her Kingdom and family, how can we know we can trust this human unless we personally put her to the test?'

Ainz sighed and shook his head as if disappointed. 'I will not scold you for this because your intentions towards me were good ones, but in the future, bring such an intention to me for approval first. 'Please convey that to all the guardians, and do not let this happen again.'

Albedo bit her lower lip and nodded, looking like a little girl being scolded by her father for picking flowers out of his newly planted garden, 'As you say my lord.' She said, and scurried off to convey his instructions.

'If I were as smart as they think I am, I would have seen that coming.' Ainz thought to himself, 'But still, she passed such a test, she was willing to take her own life because she thought I desired it? I'm not quite sure how I should feel about that.' A feeling of guilt welled up in him, though he thought nothing of doing anything to anyone for the sake of Nazarick, this didn't really meet that qualification, she was already serving Nazarick, so it felt like torturing a follower for fun. 'No help for it, I'll have to apologize to her.' He said softly.

When he teleported to the training area, he saw the humans clashing with the lizardmen as skeletons sat immobile in the wagons, the human combat style was a truly fearsome thing, the free hand of the humans gave them options, and they would grab at anything they could, pulling lizardmen off balance, twisting arms, even grabbing tails when the chance came, obviously they had trained before coming to Nazarick. Neia in particular stood out while fighting at the center, with the dexterity you'd expect of an archer wearing light armor, she seamlessly switched from sword to bow for close and distant strikes. Mare was as a result, quite busy casting low level paralysis spells on those struck by blunted weapons to simulate 'death', and for a time it was uncertain who would triumph...however the greater numbers, physical strength, greater experience, and the use of Frostpain and other mystic arts gradually turned the tide, and in the end the skeletons were massacred. When it was over, the paralyzed 'dead and wounded' were freed, and Cocytus approached to offer his critiques.

Ainz waited until then, and called out to Neia, whose eyes lit up when she saw the object of her devotion, and she swiftly put away her arms and rushed to kneel before him. 'My lord,' she said, 'I deeply regret that you came only to witness our defeat, I swear on my faith in you that we will learn from this and grow stronger.' She said.

'You may raise your head,' he said, and Neia looked up at him admiringly, 'I didn't come here concerned about your defeat, I came about your recent victory.' Ainz said, prompting a confused look from Neia.

'My victory? What victory my lord?' She asked.

'I am given to understand that my guardian, Demiurge, put you to a test earlier, he demanded you take your own life because my justice required it, he gave you a knife and told you to stab your own heart. They said you went nearly mad with the agony of failing to slay yourself, because you believed I wished it.' Ainz said.

The light in Neia's eyes seemed to turn bright as the sun, and he was reminded of the wide yellow eyed gaze of his guardians, the eyes of unflinching faith where there were no lines to cross at all, only his will. It was a look he'd never seen in a human before, and he found it...unsettling.

'Yes my lord,' she whispered, 'and if you wish my life this instant, then I will draw my sword and take it now, your justice is absolute, YOU are absolute.' He voice grew in strength and confidence as she looked up at him, and Ainz reached out and touched her shoulder, his skeletal fingers closing to hold it gently, he looked down at her and said, 'Neia, I have come here to apologize for what was done to you.'

Neia blushed deeply at his touch and shook her head furitively as she spoke, 'You are the Sorcerer King, the arbiter of justice, you needn't apologize to me.' Inside her mind she was shouting that only the most supremely righteous of monarchs could behave this way when a wrong was thought to be done, but she didn't miss a word as he said, 'My guardians are devoted to me, and sometimes their devotion leads them to excess, and it would never be my will that someone loyal to me be distressed or tortured without reason, that would be unjust, and how could I be the arbiter of justice if I let injustice pass in my realm unremarked upon?' He said.

Her mind spun, 'Please, of course think no more of it my lord, I live and am well, and learning that I had your trust was reward enough to sustain me for a lifetime, I will admit the agony of failure was very great, I could not bear the thought of letting you down, but it was worth it, so please, do not think you have anything more to apologize for.' She spoke so rapidly that she feared for a moment that he hadn't understood her, but he chuckled and released his touch, 'Very well then.' He said, 'You may return to your training.'

Neia stood, bowed, took several steps backwards, then ran back to where Cocytus and Sebas were providing guidance and going slow motion through a number of hand to hand combat techniques, as the humans...and their lizardman counterparts, stood on and watched the demonstrations.

Ainz watched as the motions were repeated, and then humans and lizardmen paired off, and repeated the motions slowly with one another over, and over, and over, and over again.

After some time watching this, Ainz approached Cocytus & Sebas, 'How are they doing?' He asked.

'My lord,' Cocytus said, 'they have very strong warrior spirits, but are inexperienced in active unit combat, and though their fighting method is very strong, it incorporates very different elements, so it will be difficult to master, they have yet to defend the caravan successfully, but it is still early in their training. It will be a long time before they are truly ready.'

Sebas chimed in, 'I believe Cocytus is quite right, as they learn to harden their bodies through my arts, their unit will become like a living fortress.'

'And what do you think of Neia?' Ainz asked, 'Is she fit to lead?'

Sebas stroked his chin, and answered, 'She clearly loves her people, so in that respect she is well suited, and she commands their respect and devotion, and she is brave, however...' Cocytus completed the sentence, 'She lacks tactical and strategic knowledge. She has spent her time as a servant and a squire, she has never had to command a unit in the flow of combat and so knows not what commands to give or when. In sum, she must be educated.'

Ainz thought back to his guild days, when he was relatively new to Yggdrasil, but shortly after joining his own guild, he had gone as an observer watched a battle between two massive guilds from a distant vantage point. He remembered watching how one guild's lead figure taking on the roll of general, sent orders out to constantly adapt to the flow, taking advantage opportunities and weaknesses, and how important his instructed maneuvers were in eventually surrounding and destroying the entire force of an equally large guild with relatively low losses of his own. He remembered talking about the subject later with his guildmates, and their resident military otaku lectured Ainz on how strategy worked and referenced a number of books...which had been added to the library...'Ah ha!' Ainz said as he snapped his fingers and came out of the reverie to which he'd just fallen into. Cocytus and Sebas, who had been looking on in silence as he'd thought, looked at him with curiosity.

'Educated warriors are better warriors, educated generals are better generals. What Neia needs is more than just combat training to enhance her skills, she requires a complex education to train her to function as a senior officer.' Ainz said, he laughed at how obvious it seemed now that he thought of it, 'In the library, there are numerous books on warfare that my friends have compiled, we must see that Neia reads them all. Ainz quickly cast a spell and a quill and paper floated beside him, he began to recite the titles of a number of books.

'The Art of War, Small Wars, The Book of Five Rings, On War, The 36 Strategies of Ancient China, The History of the Pelopenisian War, Sun Bin's Art of War...' On and on Ainz recited texts of strategy and history that offered insight into command and control, striking a renewed awe in Cocytus in particular, before he said, 'Also, have the Goblin Strategist brought from Carne village to assist in her instruction.' Ainz finally finished speaking, plucked the list of books out of the air, and handed it to Sebas. 'Have these books assembled in the library and prepared for Neia to read every night...except when doing night training, then she will study in the day.' Ainz took special care to make that qualification, with their extensive devotion he could easily picture them insisting Neia continue to read while handling a night attack on the Caravan at the same time, it was an almost laughable image, but nothing was beyond absurd when it came to how the guardians might interpret his orders. 'My lord,' Coctyus said, 'May I ask that Zaryusu be permitted to join her in this?'

'Why?' Ainz asked curiously, to which Cocytus answered, 'So that he may be called upon to perform a similar service if the lizardmen are ever to fight on behalf of Nazarick. If educated warriors are better warriors, then this will surely make Nazarick stronger.' Ainz thought for a moment, and then nodded, 'Let it be done, if you foresee him acting as a leader in a larger role, we should prepare him for it now.'

Neia was surprised when Cocytus informed her of what she'd be doing in the 'evening' of the timeless moment, when the others were given some time to relax, she found herself following behind an elder lich and walking beside a lizard man, the same lizard man who had practically frozen her bones before bashing her in the chest. 'You hit hard.' She said to him, breaking the silence as they walked down a long corridor. His mouth fell open in what she assumed was a laugh and he answered, 'You take getting hit hard, very well.' He rubbed his jaw where she'd punched him as her armor had deflected his blow.

'Neia Baraja.' She said, introducing herself. 'Zaryusu Sasha.' He said in reply.

'So...were you born in Nazarick or...? She started to say, pausing as he shook his head. 'No, I am not from here, I live on the lake nearby, Nazarick conquered my people some time ago, and now we serve the Sorcerer King.'

Neia's eyebrows went up in surprise. 'You tried to fight the Sorcerer King?'

Zaryusu shrugged, 'It went about as well as you might expect, in the end, we were defeated by Cocytus alone, and he is now responsible for ruling us.'

'How did you survive?' Neia asked, amazed that anyone could survive combat with the imposing Cocytus.

'I didn't.' Zaryusu said, 'Lord Ainz returned me to life, as well as my brother, and now our people serve him.'

Curiosity tickled Neia's mind, 'How has he ruled you?'

'Cocytus has been fair to us,' Zaryusu said, 'Lord Ainz has provided us seemingly limitless food to make up for our decreased numbers, Cocytus fought at the front lines of the frogmen conflict after that and saved many lives, and he has provided books to me that have helped greatly enhance my fishery invention. But I will not deny we are a better and stronger people for his rule.'

'No bitterness at being conquered?' Neia asked, to which Zaryusu said, '...I regret the losses from among those of us who died in futile resistence, but this is the way of the world, the strong rule and the weaker follow. Besides that, the frogmen ended up invading shortly afterwards, and because we had the power of the supreme one, we lost very few and that threat was ended forever, all in all, we lost far fewer than we would have if we had to face the frogmen alone. Also, he could have killed us all if he had wished, but instead he chose to feed us, instead of enslaving us and grinding us down in misery, he has seen to our prosperity, instead of keeping us ignorant, he has chosen to help us learn, just like he is allowing me to do now. I would dishonor my ancestors if I remained bitter about being better off instead of being happy about our people having a future.'

Neia wanted to ask more, but they arrived at the library, and there an ornately dressed elderly looking goblin stood, gesturing to a table stacked high with books. 'Please be seated.' He said, 'We have much to do.' His creaky voice spoke of advanced age, and the stack of books looked intimidating to say the least, but still they did not hesitate because of that, what gave them pause was the sheer mass of the library beyond that table. 'What...is this?' Neia asked, the first to get words out as both her and Zaryusu's mouths dropped open.

'This is the library of Ashurbanipal' said a cloaked skeleton that a sat at a nearby desk. 'The grand library of Nazarick, if there is knowledge it does not contain, then that is probably not worth knowing. The supreme ones gathered knowledge from the realm beyond and stored it here. There are fictions, books of spells, books of love, gambling, building, mathematics, and subjects I cannot even begin to comprehend the nature of.'

Neia could not help but reflect for a moment on how bizarre her life had become since her days of being a simple squire, that she could go from that, to standing next to a lizardman and a goblin in a library of dreams listening to a skeleton mage explain the knowledge gathered by gods that filled the largest room she'd ever seen.

'I...I see. And you are?' She asked, 'Titusu. Titusu Annaeusu Sekundusu. I am the chief librarian here, I maintain the order of the texts and ensure everything checked out is checked back in, properly stored, and treated with care.'

'How do you do that?' Zaryusu asked.

The fleshless skeleton's voice did his smiling for him, 'A system of the supreme ones,' he opened a book and showed them a card, 'this card contains the name of the person who checked it out, at the top of the card is the title and number assigned to the book, when someone takes the book, they sign the card and I store it in order here,' he gestured to a series of drawers with different number ranges on them, 'then when they return it, I put the card back in the book,' he turned the book to the side and showed a number sequence on it, 'this number tells me where to place it in order with the others,' which he then demonstrated by glancing at the number and then walking directly to a shelf, and simply putting it back into position, 'and I'm done.' He said. The supreme ones called it 'The Dewey Decimal System.'

As he described the system, Neia and Zaryusu glanced at each other in wonder at the simplicity and effectiveness of the system they'd just learned, and each could see the thoughts of the other, such a method of accountability could be easily transferred to a thousand different logistical uses, but Neia saw a problem. 'But, how do you know what you're looking for in the first place?' She asked.

'Simple,' Titusu said, each number range has a different category, so all you need to know is the subject classification, and you can find whatever you need, for example, you're both here to learn strategy, so you simply look for nonfiction, and then the subject of military strategy, and flip through the cards here,' he approached a deep red colored set of small drawers, opened one up, and began flipping cards as if searching, 'and you can find every book we have on the subject, with author, title, and number reference, as well as a short summary.'

'Amazing...' Neia & Zaryusu said together.

'The supreme ones are exactly that.' Titusu said, and then he gestured to the table. 'Your workspace has been prepared for you, there is ample paper for you to make notes with as well as a supply of ink, and I have been instructed to provide you with any assistance you need, if I am not at my desk, please ring the bell and I will come to you immediately.' After speaking, he went over to a nearby cart stacked high with books and began to wheel it down the path between shelves, replacing them in their proper positions one by one.

That broke the spell over the two figures, and they sat at the table where the goblin strategist stood. 'I am the goblin strategist, I am to aid you with your training, you will read much, and I will answer questions along the way, and we will also put your learning in to practice using games of learning provided by the supreme ones, expect this to be far more difficult than any physical task you have ever undertaken, but if you apply yourself, you will stand ready for any challenge.'

'Thank you, goblin-san' Zaryusu said, 'but what name should we call you by?'

The goblin strategist laughed, 'I have no name of my own, but if you feel the need, then I will choose to be called 'Sun' after one of the authors you will study today.' Neia and Zaryusu nodded, 'Very well Sun san, what comes first?' Neia asked.

The goblin strategist slide over two very thin books, along with two pair of glasses. 'These glasses will allow you to read the language, so please use them. This book is called, 'The Art of War', please begin.

Neia opened the book and looked at the strange shapes on the paper, before putting the glasses on and seeing them take the shape of words she knew. 'The art of war is of vital importance to the state...' she began to read, and as she began to read, worlds began to open up before her as concepts never considered, were brought to her attention.

She began to rethink everything she understood about how the Holy Kingdom military had functioned, why Jaldabaoth was able to gather a hundred thousand demihumans to attack them while they had no idea what was happening until the demon showed up and unleashed his hordes. 'The knowledge of this slender little book alone, might have saved countless lives.'

Her time reading was punctuated with the questions of Sun-san as he quized them about each chapter, then he began to drop examples of the application of these materials to them, allowing them to see the real applications. 'Where do these applications come from?' Neia asked, 'I have never heard of these countries, tribes, generals, battles, or cities.'

Sun shrugged, 'I was summoned with knowledge of these things from many books of the supreme ones, I asked Lord Ainz about a few, and he said they were from thousands of years ago.'

She and Zaryusu shared a glance. 'Lord Ainz is thousands of years old.' They thought in unison. 'That explains much.'

She had no idea how long they went through their reading and questioning, before the strategist called an end to their first session and sent them back to the training grounds where the lizardmen and humans were talking, laughing, eating, and drinking. Some of them had stripped down and jumped in a nearby lake and were engaged in swiming competitions, while others were trading stories about their homelands, and friendships were formed between species that shared a common struggle, to gain strength against the adversity of their current weakness.

The time spent at ease was eventually ended with the return of Cocytus and Sebas, and each took half the number and began instructions all over again, where Cocytus taught the sword, Sebas focused upon unarmed combat and martial arts, teaching them techniques never dreamed of before like Judo and and Muy Thai, which he credited as being a gift from the supreme ones, along with increasing their ability to execute martial arts. Without their rings of sustenance, there was no question that they would have collapsed many times over, but with them, they didn't need to stop, they didn't need to eat or drink, they were as unrelenting and unceasing as the undead themselves.

Eventually, students swapped positions, and those who had been with Sebas, went to Cocytus, and those who had been with Cocytus, went to Sebas. They struck dummies, they struck skeletons, they blocked against a strange device of rotating poles that, if not stopped, would have struck vital points, and they repeated the motions hundreds upon hundreds of times before moving to living opponents, until at last the wagon defense trial occurred again. This time, the defending Black Justice immediately ordered the skeletons to lie down, while the archers fired their volleys at the attacking lizardmen and the sword specialists closed the distance, the archers fired arrow after arrow into the massed ranks, prompting the little dark elf to paralyze one after another to simulate death, before the arrow fire was halted by the lack of more to fire, and they followed Neia's directions and tried to encircle the mass, only for Zaryusu to reveal his reserves, charge the wagons, and begin to exterminate them, by the time a detachment of Black Justice could disengage and defend the wagons, they had suffered 50% losses, prompting Cocytus to call a halt.

'You have done better, both of you, but still more work must be done.' Cocytus said, 'But first, you will be rewarded for your progress, a meal has been prepared, and the Sorcerer King wishes to address you.'

As the five hundred knelt before the skeletal Ainz, headed by Neia & Zaryusu, he said to them, 'You remain weak,' their heads remained low, and spirits fell, 'but you are stronger than when I first saw you, and compared to who you were before you began, you are strong.' Their spirits rose again, 'Tomorrow, you will say to yourselves, 'yesterday I was weak, today I am strong' and you will do the same the day after, and the day after, you are not strong until you have reached the pinnacle of what you are capable of, in all that you pursue, I am but a helper to you in this, but the work is yours, be proud of every inch of progress that you meak towards the peak, that belongs only to you, and nobody can ever take it away, no matter what happens to you.' He said, his voice sounding as noble as he could make it, and clearly it had an impact, because when Neia said, 'Hail the Sorcerer King!' the cheer was quickly taken up.

When it died down, Ainz continued, 'You will be rewarded, time will be unfrozen, and you will have two full days in your homes before you return, and when you do, we will do this all over again, enjoy your rest and recreation, and prepare to fight for another inch of progress towards the peak when the Sun rises tomorrow.' He then cast 'gate'in front of each group, and said, 'You are dismissed.' Prompting them to stand, wave farewell, and walk through the holes in reality.

Neia and her band found themselves again in front of the capitol, and she quickly instructed her people to take their ease, but to not engage in drinking at all, or combat unless necessary for the safety of themselves or a citizen, and to return to this same spot within two days time. They swiftly dispersed with acknowledgement of her orders, and she strode straight to her headquarters to speak with Robel & Gilcrest, there was much to explain to them about what she had learned, and only a short time to see it done.


	2. Raising the Stakes

When Neia went to see Robel & Gilcrest, they were still in the main office that Neia had been occupying within the ruined courtyard, and Neia's first question was, 'How did the request go?'

She didn't even have to name her request, it was obvious what she meant. 'The King said the matter would be under discussion, and he would give us an answer in a week.' Robel replied.

Neia opened and closed her mouth, she had to stop herself from saying 'Still?' as if ample time had passed, when she had in fact been living in between moments when the Sorcerer King had stopped time for all others. She shook her head, idly hoping that wasn't going to be jarring for to much longer.

'Lady Neia?' Gilcrest began, seeing the odd expression on her face.

She shook her head rapidly, dispelling the thought, 'Its fine, I'm fine, a week will be fine. But lets play things up a little here, put out the word that Black Justice has requested permission to build our own temple, and put out the rumor that the King is in favor of it.' Neia said, her already narrow eyes becoming near slits as she looked at her colleagues.

Robel looked surprised, 'But...how do you know that he's in favor of it?' He asked.

Neia laughed, 'Why because he didn't say no of course. If he were opposed and had sufficient power on his own, he'd have refused quickly, but we're the city guard, we're the ones who will be watching over the most important merchant in the kingdom, we're the ones overseeing construction of the city, we're the one with the backing of most of the people. The nobles are wealthy and the priests and paladins are powerful, but the nobles lack courage, and both the priests and paladins lack numbers and neither is receiving the supplies necessary for rebuilding from the Sorcerer King.' She explained, their eyes opening wider as Neia displayed an insight she'd never shown before.

'This is what will happen if he opposes us, he will try to shift the reception of goods over to either himself or one of his aligned nobles, and he will start to involve others in the reconstruction in more controlling ways. He will strike out that way to deprive us of our strengths. I can't say what the paladins and priests would do personally, but the nobles would push for that, and probably enlist those two groups to support them. So make sure we maintain good relations with the people.' Neia instructed them as they soaked up her lessons.

'In the meantime, let me tell you about this amazing system for accounting for materials that I learned of in the Sorcerer Kingdom...'

And she went on about the decimal system that sorted books, and told them about the library where she was learning with the help of a goblin and a skeletal mage, alongside a demihuman lizardman. The story was so surreal that they shook their heads in disbelief.

'If I did not hear this from you,' Gilcrest said, 'I'd have never believed it.'

Neia laughed at that, 'Neither would I.' She said, and then moved to leave, 'Everything is in your hands, I'm going to prepare to speak at services tonight, and then I'm going to relax for a while, I have to return to the Sorcerous Kingdom soon, so I'd best rest up while I can.' She walked away and waved behind her, to the sound of their wellwishes as she closed the door.

Her speech that night was one of the virtue of power applied to a system of justice, and how each person played a part in their society, creating the justice system that each person then lived in, and how weakness in the people permitted corruption within the system, and she tied it back to the incorruptable Ainz Ooal Gown, god of justice.

The crowds were now in the thousands, and instead of being on stage, Neia found that since the numbers now wrapped beyond the courtyard, concealing many behind walls of various buildings that had yet to be rebuilt, she had to speak from atop the damaged roof, which she reached by successive leaps propelled by martial arts.

But when she was done, the fists rose and fell from young child to mother to be to men in armor bearing the scars of battle on their exposed faces.

She looked to the sky and whispered softly, 'Your temple will be magnificent, Ainz Ooal Gown, god of justice and of strength.'

After it was over, Neia moved among the crowd, talking to people and answering questions, the whole thing was exhausting, and she was relieved when she could fall to her rest.

Her head hit the pillow, and her arm flopped over her face, she was to tired even to change, and just yanked a blanket over her body. It was that mental exhaustion that saved her life, because she woke to the sudden sensation of being stabbed in the chest. The blow hadn't penetrated, because she still wore the armor of the Grand King Busar, the assailant in the darkness spat out a curse of frustration and quickly raised the dagger again, aiming for her head this time, but Neia was not about to give him that chance.

Her fist snapped out and she punched her attacker in the groin, prompting his knees to buckle and his hand to drop the knife in shock, she wasted no effort, but sprang immediately from her bed, behind her attacker, and punched him in the back of the head, knocking him forward in the darkness, his hands scrambled everywhere for the knife, his frantic gestures giving Neia the time she needed, no sooner did he find the knife, than she stomped on his hand, putting mana into the force of her blow, crushing his hand and prompting a scream.

She heard others outside who had become aware of the commotion, and she kicked the knife away contemptuously, before moving beside the attacker kicking the attacker in the face as he tried to roll over from his stomach while on the floor. She had put him down, and now she had put him out.

She was just picking up the knife as men carrying weapons and a lantern burst into her room.

'Its alright, its fine, I'm fine.' Neia said to her group of wide eyed protectors. 'Bring the lamp over though, lets get a look at who tried to do this. The face was of an older man, who Neia didn't recognize. He was plainly dressed, wore no rings, he looked utterly unfamiliar.

'Do any of you recognize him?' Neia asked the group of men.

Robel pushed his way forward and looked at the man's unconscious face in the light. 'I do. He was one of the priests in the court of the King, he objected to the formation of the temple. 'I'm not sure which of the gods he serves, but he's definitely a priest and hew as profoundly unhappy at hearing my request. He had to be removed from the King's hall.'

Neia frowned. 'Frankly under other circumstances, I'd just as soon kill him and be done with it, but he's unconscious now and it'd be no better than what he tried to do, and I'd like some answers first.' She looked down at the unconscious man and an idea began to come to her. She began to stroke his face, in a way that looked almost loving, but her voice...her voice was anything but. 'And besides,' she said, 'you may yet have a purpose, you might serve the will of the great god of justice, even as you strive to undermine it.' When she looked back up at her men, the firelight of their lantern illuminated her gaze, and it sent shivers down their spine as they felt the power in her eyes.

'You, tell the King about the assassination attempt, ask him if I should bring the assassin now or in the morning.' She said while pointing at one of the men. 'The rest of you, find rope and chains and something to gag this fool with, we're keeping him under guard until the King sends word.'

'Lady Neia,' Robel said, 'shouldn't you also send word to the Sorcerer King? He's expecting you back soon, and this might complicate matters between him and the Holy Kingdom.'

Neia almost refused to bother Ainz, but after Robel pointed out the possible political implications, she closed her lips and nodded. 'You're right of course.' She said. However, she wasn't willing to bother him directly, so instead she sent a message to Demiurge. 'Demiurge, I have a problem.' She said.

In Nazarick, Demiurge frowned as soon as he felt the message come in, learning it was from Neia, he almost chose to tell her not to bother him...but the image flashed through his mind of her cry of near dispair as she struggled to end her life because she thought it was the will of Lord Ainz, and he reasoned she would not wish to waste their time.

'I should probably say this in person my lord.' Neia said, 'Could I trouble you for a gate, I will leave informing Lord Ainz up to you if you believe it important.'

'Of course Neia,' Demiurge said, 'I will open a gate at your location.' He turned to Shalltear and said, 'Open a gate at Neia Baraja's location, she has information for us.'

'Of course Demiurge.' Shalltear said sweetly, and a portal opened on their end, through which Neia presently stepped, she knelt immediately before Demiurge, and kept her head lowered until Demiurge said, 'Raise your head and speak.'

'An attempt was made on my life.' Neia said abruptly.

'So what?' Shalltear said, 'Aren't humans always trying to kill each other?' She raised her hand to her mouth and giggled a little.

'I rarely agree with Shalltear, but I do in this, what is the significance of this attempt?' Demiurge asked.

'The assassin was a priest in the court of King Caspond, I believe his reason for trying to kill me was that King Caspond heard my request to build an official temple to Lord Ainz Ooal Gown so that he can be worshipped as the god he truly is. The priest was apparently outraged, and heaped hatred and accusations of heresy and blasphemy on my messenger. In short, I believe this was done to prevent our further service to the one true god. Were he not part of the court, I would have dispatched him immediately, but the political considerations being what they are...I thought I should bring it to you first, since I would sooner DIE than be a hinderence to the Sorcerer King!' Her voice and tenor changed as she spoke, and rose to an impassioned peak, her eyes burned bright as she caught their gaze, and the haughty and beautiful Shalltear ceased her winsome and dismissive smile, and turned her glance to Demiurge.

Demiurge for his part had gone quiet. His arms crossed in front of him, and one came up to stroke his chin. 'You did the right thing by telling us this Neia, I will bring this to the attention of Lord Ainz, we should assign a bodyguard to you after this, but you should be fine for tonight, head back, rest, and prepare to speak before the court of King Caspond. Shalltear, gate.' He said, and she recovered and cast her spell, and Neia stood, bowed, and stepped through the gate.

'Interesting one, isn't she?' He said to Shalltear.

'Well if my beloved lord Ainz chose her, she must be.' She laughed, but followed by saying, 'What was that I felt from her?'

Demiurge's smile clever as he answered, 'That was the power of an evangelist. Evangelists are like bards, they use their voices for power, but unlike bards, Evangelists have a powerful ability to sway crowds, and when turned on individuals, they have a remarkable luck about saying the right thing. She's at roughly level three I would say, which makes her far more persuasive than any priest I've seen in this world, they rely on manipulating people through ritual and ceremony, but Neia speaks directly to the soul, oh she won't win everyone over, but it takes a strong will to resist the voice of the evangelist. Nothing for us sure, but if we can feel it, she has a real gift for this. She remains a human ant compared to us, but even those who are superior to her in power, will see her as far more, now I had best go inform Lord Ainz of this development, I cannot begin to grasp the depth of his plans, and I would never wish to impede him by some foolish actions of my own, we'll speak again Shalltear.' Demiurge said and walked away.

Neia of course, heard none of this as she returned through the gate and back to her quarters, and it wasn't long before word came from the King that they should bring the assassin to the castle to answer for his crime and determine whether or not there should be a trial. For now, two guards would be along who would support his Black Justice captors and ensure he remained unharmed.

The night passed swiftly, and when the Sun crested the horizon, she went to see the prisoner. The priest had awakened by that time, and four guards stood watch around him as he sat bound in a chair, his sullen face turned wrathful as he saw his target walk in alive and unharmed. He tried to yell at her, but his gag allowed only choking noises. Neia stood with her fists on her hips, looking down at him through her visor as he gagged on his words. 'I'm willing to take your gag off for the moment, if you'll agree not to start screeching like a stuck pig.' She said. 'Deal?' He calmed himself, looked at her, and nodded slowly. Neia gestured to one of the guards, who undid the gag, letting him let loose a gasp.

'Now, why did you try to kill me?' She asked.

'I serve the true gods.' He snapped. 'How could you who was blessed under them, who gave her oath under them, turn away to this blasphemy, this heresy, to worship an undead as if it were a god?' He asked in a soft voiced horror at the very notion.

'Ainz Ooal Gown is god. He is the god of power and of justice, and he saved me, he saved my men, he saved our nation, he came because we asked it of him, he fought in front of all of us, and he changed the world, and his power is absolute, if that isn't a god, what is?' She asked.

'The true gods will punish you sinner.' He said in a dark tone.

Neia's eyes flashed behind her visior, invisible to him, but she tensed up.

'So you still fear the gods.' He said snidely as he felt her tense.

'No.' She said. 'Your gods, are dead gods, I no more fear them than I do Jaldabaoth. I serve the only god left in this world, and the world will know his mighty name, his wisdom, his justice, and his power. No, what troubles me is that I AM a sinner.' She said, prompting a look of surprise from all those present.

'I am still weak, and therefore I cannot bring the justice of my god to this world, because only by strength is justice done. True I am now stronger than most within the city, especially with the marvelous equipment gifted to me by the Sorcerer King, but it is not enough, I will not stop being a sinner until I have achieved the pinnacle of my potential, or I have spilled out my last drop of blood to advance the cause of my god. And if my last drop is still not enough, he will I believe, forgive me for having given all, as a god will not fault a mortal, for not being a god.' She said, ending her impromptu sermon.

'You though!' She said, snapping her eyes down to him, 'You tried to end that before I could truly begin, and you failed, now you go before the King to determine if you go to trial, and I think you will be tried, and I think you will be found guilty, and I think you will die, and you will have died a failure before your gods, and perhaps if they receive you, you can beg forgiveness from them for your sin of weakness. But even if you don't, whether you know it or not, you may have just handed the Holy Kingdom's capitol city into the worship of the god of Black Justice. So thank you...priest of the dead gods.' She said with a gentle laugh, and before the stunned priest could begin to scream at her, she gestured to have him gagged.

'Hood him and lets take him to the castle. Just leave him in the chair, no need to preserve the dignity of a mere failed murderer and priest of failed gods.' Neia said, and the King's guards hefted the chair between them and walked out.

'Laid it on kind of thick there, didn't you lady Neia?' Robel said with some surprise.

'Do you think it was enough?' Neia said with a smile.

'Enough? Enough for what?' He asked.

'To get him to force a few hands for me.' Neia said.

'I...I don't quite understand.' Robel said.

'If this works, you will,' Neia replied, 'I learned a lot while I was away, time to see if any of what I learned, has been accurately applied.' With that she walked out and followed the gaurds, there was some confusion as two guards walked through the castle door with a hooded man struggling in his bonds and trying to shout through a gag.

The royals, the nobles, the priests, and the paladins had all gathered to begin the day, and predictably, all were chattering about in a way Neia found rather useless, she was therefore, grateful that it stopped when she caused a scene by walking in with a man tied to a chair behind her. She knelt before the throne, 'I have come with the perpetrator as his majesty ordered.' She said.

Dopple-Caspond nodded and told her to rise, and then said, 'Remove his hood, let us see his face.' The hood was yanked off, and gasps of horror shook the court. They all knew Gindis, the priest of Alah Alaf, the divine mother of the royal family's bloodline. Finding him tied struggling to a chair was not how anyone expected to start the day.

'Majesty, nobles, paladins, priests, as you know, yesterday one of my people came here and petitioned to begin our own official temple, and this man verbally abused my own, a servant of the king and of the people,' Neia began to speak, walking back and forth behind the chair, obscuring most of his body except for his struggling and half flailing bound up limbs and inhuman gagging noises, 'he did so so forcefully that he had to be removed from this very hall, only to come to my quarters later that very night and try to end my life with THIS.' She said, and drew out a dagger and handed it to one of the paladins, 'Can you confirm that this belongs to the priest?' Neia asked.

'Well, this is a priest's dagger, they're required to keep one on them, and this one bears the color of Alah Alaf on the hilt, he's the only one here who should have this, so yes, it does belong to him.' The paladin said reluctantly.

'He would have succeeded in his goal, but he could not penetrate my armor, and he was to weak to best me in combat, and so weak I did not have to kill him. Now here he is, and I request justice on behalf of the people from our King, try this would be murderer.' She requested of her King. The court erupted as Paladins were torn between an attempt at spontaneously trying to rescue a priest, while others were horrified at the crime. Priests were stunned to see one of their own in this position, and were frozen as they watched, and nobles were quickly forming a faction favoring one action or another, as they whispered to one another closely.

'Remove his gag,' Dopple-Caspond said, and immediately regreted it, the priest had been boiling more and more since Neia's provocation and he had been egged on by his own failure, and he could contain it no more. 'Traitor!' He shrieked. 'Traitors to the gods, you and all of those who follow you should be hanged! You betray the holy Queen, you betray the gods themselves, there will be no mercy for you! You should all be burned! You! Paladins! Strike down those who abandon the gods, strike them all down! Strike them all down! Strike them all down!' He shouted until the King gestured for him to be gagged again, returning him to a struggling figure that was...just a little bit quieter.

'Majesty, what say you, shall we have a trial before the people? A trial here? Shall we release him? What would you ask of us Sire?' One of the royal guardsmen said, glancing out over the court, knowing from experience the power of the court to influence the King, and unwilling to act without explicit instruction, in particular his eyes fell longer on Neia, who was now looking the King square in the eye, and waited for her answer.

 **AN: I hope you found this brief diversion entertaining, rest assured it is NOT just 'filler' it plays a wider role in the story as it unfolds for her and for the Holy Kingdom, so if you enjoyed it, please continue to read, and just as importantly, please leave a review, I love feedback. :)**


	3. Fruits of Machination

Neia's face was of stone, but inside she was grinning like a cat who had swallowed the canary. 'If he tries him, the priests and paladins will be publicly shamed, if he doesn't, word will spread and the trust the people place in both groups will be severely weakened...well...more severely weakened.' She thought to herself.

'Yeaaagh!' The scream came from a side door and Neia barely had time to dodge out of the way when she saw what was making the noise, a flash of armor and sword moved past the place Neia had been standing, and she rolled to a crouch position and drew her own weapon to look at the would be assailant. Who it was, surprised her not a bit. Remedios Custodio...inside Neia wanted to laugh, that idiot was the single worst person to resolve the problem presented to the King. Remedios looked at her sword with a moment of confusion, wondering why there was no blood on it, and she looked where Neia had been standing, and found neither blood nor body where both should have been. Her eyes narrowed as she saw Neia had indeed moved aside. She turned to attack again, Neia knew how much stronger she had become since before the Sorcerer King had come to save their Kingdom, but idiot or not, Remedios was still the strongest fighter in the Holy Kingdom.

'You DARE!' Remedios shouted, 'You DARE attack and bind a PRIEST! How far have you fallen, how deeply has that monstrous undead brainwashed you!' Remedios shouted in fury, 'I will have your HEAD for this SQUIRE!' She bellowed, and Neia responded, 'I am an agent of JUSTICE, and I am NOT your squire you petulant fool!' Neia snapped, 'This man sought my life while I slept! Now YOU seek my life in the open because I seek justice! Who is TRULY the corrupt one here?! Did you tell him to do this, did the Paladin Order try to have me KILLED?!' She shouted, and the silence became a muttering, and a rumor was born that would not be easily stilled in the days ahead.

A hush fell over the nobles, paladins, and priests alike. 'Get AHOLD of yourself commander!' Gustav said as he rushed over and grabbed Remedios's shoulder and pulled her back.

'Calm yourself immediately Commander or I WILL have you arrested.' The King said.

Remedios snarled like a cornered beast, suddenly realizing that she may have just made things much...much worse.

'Remove yourself from this hall.' The King said, 'Or I will have you removed.'

'Lady Neia,' the King said, 'I hope you will forgive her for her outrage, and not ask for 'two' trials for attempted murder.'

The muttering of the court went silent again, all eyes falling on Neia, a thing that once upon a time would have filled her with anxiety, she now accepted as the norm, and she said, 'As your majesty wishes, her actions were rash, born of emotion and she withdrew without further violence...his however,' she said gesturing to the priest, 'were planned out methodically, I will make no further mention of the actions of Commander Remedios Custodio, I swear on the god of Justice.' Neia replied. 'It is the least I can do for the justice of his majesty, who will give me justice against this man who would make himself a murderer, and for the king who holds the power to grant our request for a temple.'

Inside Neia smiled as she spoke. 'I couldn't have asked for a better outcome, the actions of Remedios in full view expose the corruption of those stupid Paladins, the actions of the priest expose the maliciousness of the priests, and my making no issue of the acts of the Paladins is a bargaining chip that will be traded in for a temple of our own. Hail the Sorcerer King!' she whispered softly to herself.

The King nodded. 'It is as you say, the trial will be in seven days, before the public, when the council convenes again.' Neia bowed, 'Then shall I leave this fool in your care your majesty? Or shall we hold him until trial?'

'Leave him here.' Said the King, 'We shall deal with him.'

When Neia left the throne room, she walked out like a general over conquered ground, and none dared bar her way. When she was out of sight, her breathing quickened and in spite of herself, her body shook...'I just dodged a blow from the greatest paladin in the Holy Kingdom. True I had a moment of leeway, but still, that ought to have made an impression. Though I hope I don't have to fight her any time soon.' She said to herself as she departed. It was awkward walking around the city and seeing the scant progress, because she had to keep reminding herself it had only been a day, time in the frozen moment seemed...endless. So she decided to take her ease for the day, visiting with the people and seeing what they needed, and before she knew it, the time had come to return to the realm of her god.

She and the rest of her people arrived almost in the same moment, just as the gate formed, and they stepped through fearlessly.

Ainz Ooal Gown greeted them personally.

'Neia,' Ainz said as soon as she knelt, and reached out and touched her shoulder, 'I have been informed of the attack on you, and it is good to see you are well.' Her heart fluttered, and she managed to say, 'I am, in no small part thanks to your majesty's kindness in equipment and in training, were it not for that, I would have died a sinner, alone in the darkness. All praise to you for my life, your majesty.' She said.

'Go straight away to the library, Zaryusu is already there, as is the goblin strategist, you may resume training in combat afterwards.' Ainz said, and effortlessly he froze time once again, Neia and her people parted company. She quickly found herself in the library and sat herself down across from Zaryusu, picking up a book by a man named 'Adam Smith', Zaryusu said little, his face was buried in a book by someone named 'Miyamoto Musashi'. The goblin strategist approached the table where they sat, and as they read through page after page, he punctuated their time with questions, and no sooner did they finish one text, then they swapped and another pair of books was laid out to go next. When they finished those, two more were laid out, one on something called 'guerilla warfare' and another on politics by someone named 'Machiavelli'.

Zaryusu looked up from his text and over to the goblin strategist, 'Out of curiosity Sun...why is it that the Sorcerer King wishes us to study subjects unrelated to warfare?'

The goblin strategist stroked his beard with a smile, tapping his cane on the stone floor with his other hand and answered, 'Great leaders must be widely educated, they must know many things on many subjects, far beyond what the commoner knows, or even what nobles know, to reach the fullness of your potential, we must fill your mind with knowledge. The Sorcerer King expects you to lead in war yes, but also in much much more, you must be leaders in peace as well, adaptable, flexible, a cut above all others, or as close to that as you can, he expects great things of you, if he is giving you these tools. Would you prefer he did not, if so, I'm sure if you asked for less of his trust, he would oblige you.' The goblin strategist chuckled as both Zaryusu and Neia shared a shiver at such a thought. 'No, not that, I was only curious.' Zaryusu said, and returned his nose to the text.

When they had lost track of the books they'd read and the things they'd explained, the goblin strategist rapped his cane on the stone to get their attention and said, 'Very good, very impressive. As a reward, please go through the more 'entertaining' parts of the library and find something you will enjoy reading purely for pleasure.

Zaryusu and Neia looked at each other curiously, 'There are books that exist just for pleasure?' Neia asked, 'Books are tremendously expensive, why would people put books together that were not intended to be useful?' The goblin strategist laughed, perhaps that is true of the world out there, but it was not so among the supreme ones.

Neia and Zaryusu shared a laugh, 'Every time I think I am done being surprised...' Zaryusu began, 'They show us something new and undreamt of.' Neia finished, and they began to walk the long halls, soon, Neia found herself looking at things she could scarcely believe, books that had smooth but clear looking pictures of various oddly drawn characters. She picked one up and looked through her translation glasses at the title. 'Ranma 1/2: Volume 1' she snickered when she saw that the boy character had turned into a girl, and deciding that some humor would do her good, took it back to the table. Zaryusu, she saw, had taken up something with a different style, with two females on the cover, one of them scantily clad in black, one of them rather short looking, as she looked through the glasses, she saw the title, 'Slayers'. She shrugged at his choice, and sat down to read, flipping through the pages and laughing frequently until the volume was done.

'Now that your minds are at ease, time to head to the training grounds, I will see you again soon.' The goblin strategist said, and shooed them off.

Neia silently committed the title to memory, she would want volume two as soon as possible. She pushed those thoughts aside when they reached the training site, where Cocytus was providing instruction on how to do double envelopments, and how to prevent double envelopments.

Neia wondered if she'd ever not wonder how much time had passed in this strange existence, but oddly enough, there wasn't time to ask that question as Cocytus directed the two back into formation and resumed the constant series of rushes, feints, and attacks in various types of terrain, subjecting the humans to ambushes, frontal assaults, night attacks, and more. When that wasn't happening, either Sebas or Cocytus was be providing instruction on various combat manuevers for individual skill, and teams were broken up, with even numbers, superior numbers, a mix of humans and lizards on the attack and on the defense. And as usual, the dark elf child sat back and paralyzed people who were 'hit' by arrows or swords, and the few injuries that were sustained, were quickly healed.

Hour after endless hour, day after endless day, was crammed into the moment between one second and the next, until they were again rewarded with a meal fit not for gods, but for kings, and given time to ease their minds, and Ainz appeared again to congratulate them on their progress. He called Neia over as soon as she had finished her meal, and said to her, 'I will be sending you back with a body guard this time, until the matter in the city is resolved at least.'

Neia was touched by his concern, and wanted to argue that it was to much for him to worry about her...but she knew that tone of voice. He was informing her of a decision that would not change, so she accepted it gracefully. 'I thank you my lord, for ensuring that my life is preserved so that it may assuredly serve you longer.' 'Sebas!' Ainz called out, and Sebas approached. 'You are best fit to guard Neia while she remains within the capitol, you know my justice as well or better than any, you are then best fit to guard Neia.'

'As you say my lord, so it shall be.' Sebas replied.

'You have done much this time, learned much, grown much, and though there is still more to do, you are now closer to being ready for what is out there, than you were yesterday, take comfort in that, and enjoy your rest. You will have two days in your homes, and then you will return again.

The gate appeared, and once again they passed back into the world of mortals, and out of the realm of what seemed to their eyes, to be the realm of gods, and with her, stood an immaculately dressed butler, fit to serve the greatest noble, he was there to protect her...even after rising as far as she had in life, it still seemed out of place, but in a world that she also saw as being out of sorts...what else was new?

 **AN: I know, this one is a little short, but this side story, while a significant gap filler, is only a branch, not the whole tree. Plus its late and I'm tired, so there. :) Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and find it worth your time to keep reading, and to keep reviewing, I especially hope you enjoyed the way Neia played the court like a fiddle. She's not the same innocent and naive girl she once was, though she retains many of the qualities that made her unique and enjoyable to follow, she is 'growing up' in ways she didn't before. How will that impact the way she deals with Remedios...and how Remedios deals with the threat she now believes Neia poses? Well you'll have to wait and see. Enjoy the ride! :)**

 **P.S. No, I could not resist throwing some manga into the library. I almost through in Legend of the Overfiend, but didn't want to change the story rating! ;)**


	4. A Brush with Fear

Her next two days in the capitol were uneventful, she went over the logistics of supply with Robel and Gilcrest, throwing in tidbits about proper accountability and distribution of materials, and she made a point of touring the city with several people in tow taking notes about particular details of the reconstruction that were quickly written down, and speaking with the people to learn their concerns, she was the face of the rebuilding, and unsurprisingly, many asked about the assassination attempt by the priest of Alah Alaf, which Neia confirmed, prompting outrage from not only those who followed her beliefs, but even those who did not, who saw the hard work and relentless incorruptible efforts she put into reconstruction of homes and utilities depended upon by the common people. The story of how she'd killed the corrupt guard out of hand and recovered the supplies had become very well known. And of course, at each step of the way, she credited her work to the Sorcerer King. Sebas walked in a dignified position just behind her, and silently approved of her continued praising of his master.

He, incidentally, drew many a curious glance, dressed immaculately and with perfect posture, he radiated the aura of the perfect servant, and it enhanced Neia's reputation just to have him near. When she was not walking the city and meeting with the people, she spent her time at the headquarters area overseeing combat training of those who pursued strength, and in a moment of inspiration she said, 'Sebas...would you be so kind as to offer some of your excellent instruction to those present?'

And just like that, Black Justice gained the deadliest of instructors they could ask for in the combat butler.

Her speeches that evening drew new eyes, eyes that radiated hostility, she could feel them on her, and from his position nearby, Sebas could sense the hostility as well, and he scanned the rows of people to find its source. It did not take long, several armed men, presumably paladins, and several priests, were watching the gathering. As they remained hostile...but not violent, Sebas considered his options, but ruled out actually culling them. Instead he waited until Neia's covert search for the hostility caught up with his own, and when she removed her visor and stared at them, Sebas unleashed his killing intent directly at them, while concealing his own presence. The priests, being the weaker of the two groups, fell to their knees, while the paladins were barely able to stay on their feet, and only managed that by holding each other up. They beat a hasty retreat, and Sebas terminated his 'warning' as soon as Neia's visor went back on.

There were no more threats present, and Sebas was able to enjoy the rest of her speech uninterrupted.

The priests and paladins who had been radiating their hostility however, were only glad that nobody interrupted their dead sprint to get the hell away from the growing gathering of Black Justice followers. They felt like they had sprinted over half the city when they stopped and caught their breath in a nearby alley, they leaned against the walls and and gasped for breath, or simply collapsed onto the ground and hunched over.

'What...was that? What WAS THAT?' one paladin said, his voice filled with horror.

'I...I don't know.' A priest said.

'She's a monster, no wonder she was the Sorcerer King's squire.' Another managed to gasp out as he beat his own chest and coughed.

'She's the one who killed the Grand King Busar, that's why she wears his armor, and she actually avoided a blow from Remedios Custodio remember...this is what we're dealing with. Do you doubt me now?' Gustav said to them, his face dark with reproach.

'No...no we do not.' A priest said, 'But what the hell are we supposed to actually DO? She's the liason for the Sorcerer King, who has been providing literally ALL of the reconstruction supplies, and he's been doing so at no cost, from his Kingdom comes the very grain our people turn to bread, if something happens to her, its an insult to him! And even if that weren't the case...that fool DID try to assassinate her!' His gaze went down to the dirty ground on which he has flopped himself, 'Damnitall, that stupid fool...both of those stupid fools...they might as well have cut the ribbon at the opening ceremony for her temple!' The priest snapped and punched the ground, leading to him rubbing the now sore knuckles.

Gustav looked at his fellow paladins. 'Ideas?' He asked.

One of them shrugged, 'Try not to die?' He said with a weary half smile.

Gustav stared daggers at him.

He continued, 'Look, its not all bad, OK so Remedios screwed up...and so did that stupid priest, but Neia Baraja will be gone in less than a month, sure she's been...a boon in the capitol, like her or not, but outside of here she has no influence, she's just going to be guarding a merchant caravan for three months, we can take advantage of her absence to do more ourselves and win back the trust of the people, we just can't make a big deal about this trial, that priest is already dead, the only thing we could do to change that is to put ourselves under the axe with him, give up on that, and focus on trying to grow our support here and in the court. She may be a monster at combat, but she was never more than a squire, what could she possibly know about intrigue and political manipulation?' The paladin said.

Gustav thought it over as the man finished, he tapped his fingers on his armor as he pondered what he'd just heard. It was a fair point. 'Alright, it runs against my preference, but if we can't just kill her bodily, we can at least erode her support.'

Back at the gathering...

Neia completed her speech to profound cheers, and then went out among the people, offering advice and comfort, and Sebas made mental notes of approval on how Neia treated those she encountered, when it was over, he returned to her side and said, 'You show great concern for their wellbeing.' It might have been a mere comment, but his voice carried a hint of praise, and Neia accepted it gracefully.

'Of course,' she said, 'helping the weak is common sense.' Sebas barely concealed his pleasure at what she said as she reminded him of his maker's words. 'True they may be weak now, but so are children, help them now, they may grow strong, guide them now, they may grow wise, build them now, and they may endure tomorrow.' Neia said as they walked back to her quarters. When they arrived, Sebas asked, 'Have you always thought this way?'

Neia laughed and shook her head negatively, 'No. I mean I did want to help my country...but I gained most of this understanding as a result of my time with the Sorcerer King. I do not refer to him as 'the god of justice' just because it is a cool title.' She giggled a little at the way she put it. Sebas let out a rare smile and said, 'I believe my master, and my maker, would both be very proud to hear how you spoke just now.'

'Thank you Sebas.' Neia said with a deep and clear sincerity, 'I'm heading to sleep now.' She said and closed her door as he stationed himself outside.

The last day of her time in the capitol before returning to her training, was spent merely socializing, a day of ease was sorely needed, and for once, she got it...but the truth was, even though she needed it, she couldn't help but be eager to return to the realm of her divine god of justice, and she practically skipped out the gate to meet her chosen elites.

The gate opened as was expected, and Sebas stepped through, followed immediately by Neia and then the remainder. They found themselves on the training grounds, where a series of armed skeletons stood in perfectly spaced rows, and standing in front of them, was Cocytus.

Both humans and lizardmen formed up in rows in front of him, and Cocytus did not waste time on formalities, 'Repetition is the key to mastery. According to the books of the supreme ones, it takes roughly five thousand repetitions to remove the necessity of thought before action, and turn combat maneuvers into instinctive responses. So guess what we'll be doing.'

They could practically hear his grin. He was clearly enjoying himself.

'You will start with the most important maneuver in combat. That would be...not getting stabbed.' The curious looks were quickly replaced with laughs from both the humans and lizardmen alike at his on point humor.

'It is funny, yes, but being stabbed is not, and even if your armor is excellent, better not to be stabbed in the first place, so getting out of the way of an attack, is better than surviving it, this action will be followed by your response to avoidance, you will begin to chain your actions together, until every single act becomes second nature, and then you will do unit maneuvers and practice concealment, evasion, and distraction...'

It was...a very long session, made possible only by virtue of the rings they were given that negated fatigue and the need for sleep or food or water. The skeleton Neia face tried to stab her in the face, and she quickly avoided it, she was getting better at that. Gradually, she noticed how she could predict the skeleton's actions based on his motions, raising his sword to stab her, had certain precursor actions that had to be taken, raising the sword to position, and as it grew faster, knowing in advance what it was going to do became ever more important. Others she saw around her clearly had begun to grasp the same things, and the grinding effort began to pay off. The timeless moment had given them unlimited time, and Neia was certainly profiting from it.

One exercise transitioned in to the other, which itself transitioned in to each other, as instincts were forged by grinding away at weakness and incompetence and inexperience in the lot of them, until the time came for Neia and Zaryusu to go to their own tasks as leaders, and were again in the library.

The stack of books was still waiting for them, as were their copies of 'manga' for recreational reading. Neia picked up a book by Vegetius, while Zaryusu began reading a book on a conflict called 'The Peloponesian War'. Hour after timeless hour again they ground away at what they had come to recognize was their incredible ignorance by constant study, and the goblin strategist, at every step, was questioning and quizing them about what they read, until he was satisfied the knowledge had been internalized.

How many books they read, they could not say, but Zaryusu and Neia shared a common look of awe as they began to understand how little they really knew about anything, and how much they believed they had known before coming to the library of a god.

Oddly enough, the goblin strategist had walked away from them for a moment, and was fiddling at a table for several moments, and they watched curiously until he called them over. As he turned to them, a pair of undead brought over two easels and canvases. 'As commanders in battle, you must learn take everything in from the battlefield, as swiftly as you can, even instantly, in order to know how to properly order your forces, this is counter to nature to do, so it must be trained into you, as surely as the instinct to get out of the way of a sword must be honed, so too must this be, and to that end, I have laid out a portrait of a landscape borrowed from the supreme ones. You will have only three seconds, and then you may not look again, you must recreate that scene as accurately as you can by painting it. For now, your sword is your paintbrush and your armor is your memory, BEGIN!' he snapped and they glanced at the landscape, 'Time!' the goblin strategist said, 'Eyes only on your canvas until you are ready for me to judge your work.'

Unsurprisingly...their first attempts were...not good quality. They actually laughed at each other's work, not only because the painting job was really bad, but because to their surprise, they had missed so much in what seemed at first to be a simple exercise.

However, if at first you don't succeed...try...try...try again...and again...and again...and again...until success. Beside and behind them were stacks of canvases as fresh landscape portraits were brought out, each of them beautiful to behold in their own right, but none of which had scenes that looked even remotely familiar. Oddly enough, Neia found that she actually 'enjoyed' painting, she found it to be peaceful, and after so many attempts at recreating scenes, she found that she was gradually developing an affinity for it, and her work quality was improving, not only in details remembered, but in the realism with which she could represent them. Zaryusu, for his part, seemed to find it very strange, and Neia wondered if lizardmen had the art of painting in his homeland.

The chance to ask did not come for quite some time, not until the goblin strategist was satisfied, and allowed them time to read some recreational materials, both of them finished their respective series, and Neia chose another called 'Record of Lodoss War' while Zaryusu chose something called 'Monster Musume'. They each enjoyed their respective choices, and began to appreciate the idea of reading purely for pleasure. However eventually word reached them that Ainz was ready to send them back.

While departing was regretable, they would both agree that the feast beforehand was not. The varieties of fish that Zaryusu and his lizardmen were able to consume and the manner in which they were prepared had become the stuff of legend in the lizardman village, and a revolution in food preparation and cooking had been set off, to say nothing of the ideas they were bringing with them along the way whenever Zaryusu spoke of the things he read in the divine library. The humans were no different in that regard, as on their free time they tried to learn how to recreate the dishes they enjoyed most, using whatever they could find within the capitol, several, having had the concept of grills explained to them, had begun trying to create grills out of the scrap they could find in the ruins, and experienced some mixed successes.

As always, Ainz took a moment to speak to Neia and find out how things had progressed in her time in the capitol, however short it had been. Neia didn't question it, when it rained, it poured, and events could turn on a dime. She informed her god of the impending council meeting and the trial of the priest, and he nodded sagely and said, 'Everything will be fine. Go, and do great things.'

Neia grinned with enthusiasm. 'In your name my lord.' She said, and when the gate opened, she walked through with a smile on her face.

 **AN: I know, short chapter, until I get to the real meat of the palace intrigue that Neia has been facing intermittently, some of these will be on the shorter side. I do hope you got a kick out of picturing Neia trying to paint like Bob Ross and reading classic manga. :)**


	5. Turnabout is Unfair Play

When she and her people returned, there was already someone waiting for her, Robel, and he had the single largest smile on his face that she had ever seen. Beyond the walls, she heard cheers like nothing she had heard since the victory over the Demon King Jaldabaoth. 'What's happened?' Neia asked.

'The King has granted our request, he has given us permission to build an official temple for Black Justice, he's said that the site of your current headquarters, along with the adjacent building ruins on each side, were authorized for its construction. He did however, lay a few caveats.' Robel said.

Neia's building excitement was tempered, but she waited for him to continue, 'The priest who tried to kill you must be tried privately and punished by exile instead of publicly and executed.' Neia shrugged, she'd hoped to see him publicly humiliated, but if it got them official acknowledgement to show some mercy to an old fool, sobeit.

'You are forbidden from profiting in the same way that the temples of the other six gods do. You must not receive public funds from the crown. And lastly, before you break ground on the new temple, you must complete the existing rebuilding project for the capitol.' Neia's smile grew large.

'I'm guessing that healing and funding restrictions were at the insistence of temple advisers. They're stupid that way.' Neia said.

Robel looked a little confused, so Neia elaborated. 'The temples draw most of their income directly from charging people for healings from injuries or illness, their influence is so pervasive on this issue that its literally a requirement that adventurers abide by it. In theory this keeps them out of politics...in practice...well have you ever not seen priests or paladins in court, and when was the last time one of them did not endorse the established crown?' Neia said.

'They expect that by imposing a restriction against profiting from healing, they'll strangle us financially, because the cost of a magical education is so high, if we can't profit from it, we won't train people in it, and they assume, wrongly, that this means we won't be able to do it, and as a result we won't be able to match their services, and we won't have their income, especially if we do not draw support from the crown, the end result will be our temples won't be able to be maintained, and we'll collapse under the weight of even modest success.'

Robel's expression turned dark.

'However, they're thinking with their prejudice again.' Neia said. 'They're thinking about the Sorcerer King as just an undead magic caster who is only capable of taking life, they have no idea that he's capable of saving it through healing, and they haven't given thought to his ability to produce runcrafted and enchanted equipment, they've blinded themselves by their faith, to what is...for us, easy to see. I never had any intention of charging people for healing, that blackhearted policy was never going to be something I was going to tolerate, I have the shape of a plan slowly forming in my mind as to how to maintain it, and I will look for an opportunity on my journey to execute it, to really stick it to those stupid priests and blind temples, all I need are a few people willing to execute it, capable of fighting and healing and willing to move around a lot. How we'll sustain the temples...well I have a slowly forming plan for that as well, but I need to see what the situation in the villages are like. But I think we have nothing to worry about.' Neia said with a smile, 'Its OK to be happy.'

Robel's smile returned.

'How much remains of the capitol to rebuild?' She asked.

'We've got...' he paused and dug into a pack and pulled out a sheaf of papers, 'Twenty-two manor houses of the nobles, fourteen public buildings, comprised of one sick house per quarter, three orphanages, two guard barracks, four public fountains for water access, and one prison.' He said, rattling them all off rapid fire. 'There are more private residences that have not been built, but these don't really matter, because quite frankly there were so many dead that we have empty houses here as is. This city wasn't used as a large scale prison like some others were, we can knock down the damaged empty homes and use the materials and rebuild faster.' He finished.

'See that done then, tear down the damaged houses, and then focus on the orphanages and the public fountains, sickness isn't large right now, but there are a lot of orphans and it is taking a really long time for people to draw water because of the shortage of fountains to use. The sick houses can come after that, then the prison, and the noble houses can come last. However tell them that if they want their manors rebuilt faster, they can send their soldiers to do so alongside everyone else.' Neia said, 'For now though, take the day off, this is now a holiday.' Her smile was broad, and her men all cheered, they went in to the city and found the members of Black Justice dancing and music playing, it appeared that they'd declared an impromptu holiday all on their own, and she wasn't inclined to argue.

Sebas took it all in stride as he followed beside her, and happy as Neia was, she was also anxious. 'Whats the matter?' Sebas asked, 'Aren't you happy, Lord Ainz will now be properly honored.'

'That brings a joy to my heart like nothing has in years.' Neia said, 'But...how do you think some of the Paladins will take this, how do you think Remedios will take this? She's convinced all undead are evil, she has the stubbornness of a bull and the brain of a rock, you don't have to be smart to be a paladin, and even some of those who are smarter than she is, will NOT take this well. Tonight, we're going to establish a watch here at our headquarters.' She said.

'A watch?' Sebas asked, 'You doubt my ability to guard you?' His tone was somewhat chiding, but Neia shook her head, 'Never that dear Sebas' she said with a sincere smile, 'but at the moment when we think we are safest, we are at our most vulnerable, and I won't lose a single one of my people because I failed to think my actions through, or assumed that things would work out because my idea of planning was 'hoping really hard nothing goes wrong'.'

Sebas stroked his beard. 'That's very wise Lady Neia, very wise indeed. I am sure my Lord Ainz would be proud of that thinking. What did you have in mind?'

Neia had a twisted smile on her face, 'An ambuscade, if discovered and promptly surrounded, will repay the intended mischief with interest.' She said, 'A man named Vegetius wrote that, and its not hard to conclude that we're going to face a repraisal, or that it will happen tonight.' She said as she opened her office door.

'Why tonight?' Sebas asked.

'Because today we're happy, its our new holy day, our people are drinking and laughing, they're overjoyed, what better time to respond, than the time when our happiness can turn to misery, our triumph to tragedy, or joy at a new phase of life to a state of mourning many deaths?' Neia said. 'Remedios may or may not take part, but with her mentality its hard to imagine that she won't, I doubt all the paladins will either, but I'm sure those who do will find some support among the nobles.' She said.

'Why would the nobles help?' Sebas asked.

'Some of them wouldn't, but the corrupt ones like Handor, who find us interfering in their business, they would, others would because of ties to the temples or out of some genuine misguided devotion, or just to back the side they THINK has more power.' Neia shrugged it off.

'How many do you think they'll use?' Sebas asked.

'Well I and my hundred are here every night, there are also usually around three or four hundred more who simply encamp here out of a sense of general eagerness to work or, embarrassing as it is, to be close to where I am. If we usually have about five hundred people in this part of the city, not counting the thousands elsewhere scattered about...even attempting to catch us by surprise, if their goal is to kill me and decapitate our leadership, at least twice that will be necessary, and that is if we're equal opponents, but we're not. Black Justice has engaged in two activities, working and training, for months, ordinary guards are no match for us, but paladins...maybe. So they'll probably arrange an attack with 1500 men.' She said as she went through her papers.

'Tell me Sebas, is there something you can put into drink that will sober someone up quickly, say within a few minutes?' She asked.

Sebas thought for a moment, 'Nothing that I know of, however healing does that since alcohol is a form of poisoning, what if we provided a crystal with a mass healing spell you could use after the celebration and people go to sleep, if combined with a 'quiet casting' spell, nobody would even be aware it had been used.' Sebas said.

'That would do nicely. Now...I need to ensure this goes well, so, I suppose it is time to test my hundred, but I'll also need to ensure we have enough people ready to delay any attack while the remainder prepare...'

Sebas watched as she quickly drew out a map of the headquarters area with buildings and features marked, and when she started talking to herself about how to detect the inevitable surprise attack, he interjected, 'Why not ask for CZ?'

Neia looked up from her drawing, 'Would the Sorcerer King allow it?' She asked.

'You're CZ's friend, of course he'd encourage her to come and help you.' He said, 'I will just be a few minutes.' He said and stepped through a gate. Neia marked off a half a dozen locations, and then the gate opened again, and CZ stepped through, followed immediately by Sebas who was holding two crystals.

'CZ!' Neia said, as she rushed over to hug her maid demon friend.

'It is good to see you Neia.' CZ said as she hugged her back...and put a sticker on Neia's face. Neia laughed, but then asked seriously, 'Did Sebas tell you?'

'Yes,' CZ said, 'and Lord Ainz, who was not happy, he initially planned to send all of us, but Demiurge suggested this would be an adequate test of your progress as a leader. Cocytus wanted to come too, but he was talked out of it for the same reason, instead, Cocytus, Demiurge, and Lord Ainz will be watching how you handle everything.'

'Neia fidgeted...' My god will be watching over me...'may I make him proud that I am his.' She said with her head reverentially lowered, and CZ responded by putting another sticker on her other cheek. 'Cute.' She said.

Neia smiled broadly and said, 'I need your help...'

Sebas waited as Neia went over her plans. That night, Neia declared that in honor of their holy day, everyone should sleep with armor on and weapon beside them. It was a good enough excuse that nobody thought to question it.

Back in Nazarick...

The other guardians were watching behind Ainz Ooal Gown as the events unfolded.

'Her planning skills have grown considerably.' Demiurge said as he pushed his glasses up.

'It is thanks to the education of Lord Ainz.' Cocytus said, 'The library has given her the knowledge to be not just a warrior, but a leader.'

'I'm sure my Lord Ainz could come up with a much better plan though.' Said Shalltear.

'True,' Ainz said, while privately thinking that...no...he probably couldn't, she'd considered everything he would have, 'however she is only human, and she's done a very good job in that respect.'

'They're sure having fun down there.' Aura said casually, 'But it will be a whole lot more fun soon.' She grinned.

As they watched, Black Justice elites took up positions where Neia instructed them, cloaked in black, and CZ took a high position where she could observe. Neia had several others set up barriers of black painted stone in key positions, things that either blocked or channelled easy access to her headquarters area. And as soon as the lot of heavily intoxicated people were asleep, she used the quiet casting spell, followed by the mass healing. Everything had been in place for hours, before anything began. Ainz saw the gathering of people, and zoomed his remote viewer in on the group.

'Remember,' Remedios said, 'they're going to be mostly drunk, this was a big day for them, they're quiet, they're happy, and we're going to make them dead, screaming, and sad. Even catching them by surprise, this won't be easy, but we've got to chop the snake's head off before it grows enough to bite, I'll handle Neia myself, the rest of you, kill everyone there, just go by your respective routes, and everything will be fine.'

Ainz zoomed the mirror out, and finished repeating what he'd seen her say by reading her lips. 'That is not warrior like.' Cocytus said critically.

The group grew larger as it moved through the city, and as Neia had anticipated, Ainz guessed there was somewhere between one thousand and fifteen hundred troops, however none of them noticed CZ's silent signal, and Neia and those closest to her, began to wake everyone up and warn them to be ready to receive an attack, training had included a willingness to follow urgent orders without taking the time for questions, and as a result, before the parties of hostiles had gotten halfway there, over three hundred were awake, and by the time they were three quarters of the way there, all of them were awake. Sebas quietly released two more spell crystals, one for quiet casting, and another as a booster charm to put the people at peak efficiency.

When the hostiles had come close, Neia did her part and stepped out into the street holding a torch, and she said, 'Remedios, I wouldn't do this if I were you. Go home, things are going to get a lot more painful if you don't, this is your only chance.'

Remedios laughed and said, 'The pain is all yours now bitch.' And she drew out her bow and fired, the dropping of the torch when Neia dodged was the signal, and Black Justice fighters atop roofs stood up, and fired down into the thick crowds. CZ's gun started firing as she picked off targets in quick succession, and the various bands of attackers found routes they thought they knew, either closed off or slowed, and the readied Black Justice was on the offensive, firing arrows had become second nature, and mass targets were easy. Remedios's people had brought few bows, expecting to just storm a camp of sleeping people and start stabbing everyone to death, now, insted, they were fighting a pitched battle from a secure position.

Remedios was unharmed, and sought to end it by charging after the one she blamed for everything, Neia Baraja, only to find that Neia was waiting for her, with an immaculately dressed butler, the scenes were impossibly incongruous, between the desperate struggles of blood and steel in the darkness, and the formally dressed old man in front of her, Sebas moved to confront her, but Neia touched his shoulder, 'Wait.' Neia said. 'I won't say no to a rescue, but honestly, I need this, one way or the other. People have to know.' She stopped her sentence cold, and Sebas wondered what it was they needed to know. But he stood aside.

The Black Justice ambushes, supported by the distance shooting of CZ and with prepared positions that limited access of numbers, took a butcher's toll, and the fifteen hundred was down to...much less, in very short order. Fighting however, is a noisy thing, and the sounds of such fighting roused the attention of the entire city, even if it was in one quarter, nobody could not have heard so many shouts and so many swords clash.

The power of preparation was made clear, and when their numbers had dwindled in various positions, and no reinforcements came in the form of successful companions from any other path, while from victorious positions, Black Justice fighters arrived to reinforce their own.

But Remedios was unaware of all of this, she had eyes for only one thing. The death of Neia Baraja.

'Smart move old man.' Remedios said, and as she began to advance, she froze, Neia was removing her armor. The torches and fires around made it obvious what she was doing, but what she did not understand was why. When the armor fell, Neia began removing her boots, and she said, 'You know, at one time, I admired you greatly. You were my goal.' Neia said, hopping a few times as the stubborn boot at first did not want to come off. 'I admired your sense of justice, your willingness to place a single life above your own, even when preserving yourself could have let you save more.' She tossed aside the other boot, more cooperative as it was than its twin.

'I thought, if only I could be like her, as strong as her, I could protect everyone.' Neia said.

'If you're trying to flatter me to save your hide...!' Remedios began, prompting a laugh from Neia.

'No,' Neia said, 'all that was in the past. Now I hold you in the highest contempt. Especially in this moment, as you lead over a thousand people to their deaths rather than spend even a moment reflecting on your actions, and on the true nature of those with whom you work.' Neia took off her quiver and dropped it.

'You failed to see the greatness of the Sorcerer King even when he risked himself to save us all. You failed to see the evil in manipulating others or in throwing away innocent lives just because the bearers of those lives didn't look like you.' Neia said, as she dropped her sword still in its sheath.

'You threw away your justice a long time ago when you stopped thinking about what justice meant, and have been clinging to the tatters of it ever since, and blaming everybody else for your own failures.' Neia said, as she took off her bow and set it gently aside.

'Shut up!' Remedios said.

'You now betray the Holy Kingdom, the Kingdom of your beloved Queen Calca, because you'd rather its people burn than its people change. I doubt she'd be proud of you if she saw you try to sneak through her capitol and murder five hundred innocent people in their sleep.' Neia said, continuing to egg her on, and Remedios shook her head and shut her eyes in denials, shaking with rage, 'Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut UP!' Neia set aside the last of her magic items.

'Fight me!' Remedios said, 'Pick up that sword and fight me!'

'Why?' Neia asked, 'You were already prepared to kill me while I slept, you can't do it while I'm standing here looking at you telling you the truth, you can't HANDLE the truth?'

Neia gave Remedios a bitter smile, 'We both know I can't beat you with a sword, or even if I use my bow and magic items, no matter how low you've fallen, and no matter how much I've trained, you're still a better warrior than I am, so go ahead and do it, and I'll prove that even being a weaker fighter, doesn't mean I'm not stronger than you.' Neia stood now in nothing but bare feet and ordinary tunic.

'Fine then you brainwashed servant of evil, now you DIE!' Remedios said and launched an attack meant to annihilate evil, and holy light fell where Neia stood, and Neia stood with arms out and gaze upward as if to receive it, and Remedios smiled with satisfaction, evil would always perish to her, one way or another. Only to see...nothing happen.

'I told you.' Neia said, 'I am the servant of the god of justice, how you could be so stupid as to think a holy light meant to hurt evil, would hurt me, I cannot imagine.' She still held her arms out, and Remedios couldn't bear the sight, in a flash, she was in front of Neia, and her sword went through Neia's arm. It hurt. She screamed.

By this time, most of the battle had already ended, with many of the attackers dead and some survivors arrested as they tried to flee, some survivors had been captured by members of Black Justice, either after surrender or being wounded, and were being dragged to the center where the expected to find Lady Neia standing tall and proud, but instead found a commotion as a still standing Remedios savagely attacked the evidently defenseless Neia.

But Remedios STILL either did not notice, or did not care what was going on around her.

'Go ahead!' Neia spat out, 'Kill me while I'm unarmed and unarmored!' She said as Remedios pulled out her sword and stabbed Neia in the other arm. It hurt. Neia screamed.

'Behold the greatest of all paladins!' Neia shouted, 'Killing the unarmed and unarmored while they do not resist!'

Remedios kicked Neia in the stomach, forcing her to double over, and then she back handed her across the jaw, sending Neia falling to one side, she forced herself up to all fours, and then to her knees, and as she rose, Remedios kicked her in the teeth, dislodging several of them.

Neia spat them out, a mass of teeth and blood and saliva stained the stone. 'You think that will silence me! Any weakling can be a torturer, but power isn't just what pain you can inflict, its what you can TAKE, and justice, service, is the reason to take it.' Remedios screamed and cut off Neia's ear.

'I'll cut out your tongue next!' She screamed.

'It would still be a tongue that spoke the truth, not one that ordered fifteen hundred to kill five hundred of their sleeping neighbors in the night!' Neia said, and promptly lost her other ear, and a small part of her wondered as the sword fell, if she would hear the inevitable scream...she did.

'The Sorcerer King IS justice. Strength exists to create and protect justice, and killing me won't change that,' Neia was gasping hard, and another kick and she felt her ribs crack in her chest, 'nothing will change that, and you will never be strong enough to beat me, even if you kill me, because I am only the messenger of the god of justice, Long Live Ainz Ooal Gown!' Neia shouted. And as Remedios moved in to make the killing blow, Sebas chose to intervene.

He caught her arm in his grip, right at the wrist, and said, 'I will not let you kill her.'

Remedios snarled and said, 'Let go or you're next.'

He snapped it. Twice. Then he took her sword away as a parent would take scissors from a wayward toddler.

She tried to hit him with her free hand. Her hand broke when it connected.

He grabbed her throat, and squeezed.

She choked...and it hurt. She tried to fight, raining blows with broken appendages, it did nothing but hurt her worse, and eventually, the struggling slowed, then stopped, and she went limp, he dropped her like an undignified sack of potatoes and stepped over her to Neia

'That was...painful looking.' He said. 'What was the point?' He asked as he took out a potion.

'I beat her.' Neia said. Sebas looked confused.

'I fought her, without fighting.' She grinned through the pain, everyone who saw her, my people, or her own, will know how low she's really fallen now. You can't pretend to be the hero to others, only to yourself, when you do...well...this, to someone who is not going to fight you.' She managed a chuckle through her softly spoken, barely whispered words, as Sebas knelt and cradled her limp and barely moving form, and through a toothless mouth, shaking in pain as the stopper was pulled, she said, 'Thanks for the save.' She reminded him of the battered Taure,the first time he'd seen her, and when the potion was put to her lips, she drank greedily. Her people, finally seemingly free to move after the shock of what they saw happening wore off, rushed in to help her up as the potion took effect.

She looked over at the crumpled form of Remedios Custodio, 'Is she dead?' Neia asked Sebas.

'No, but she will have a very bad headache when she wakes up.' Sebas answered.

'Oddly enough, I'm glad she's not dead...I did admire her...once.' Neia said. 'Its sad to see how low she's fallen, attacking innocent people at night in their sleep, who wanted to do nothing more than praise the one true god and worship what should be worshiped and live as they should live. How do you plan to to kill people the way she did...how do you actually try to do that, to carry it out against your own people...and still think yourself the good and noble hero...and still be surprised that when you use a holy strike against someone, it doesn't work on THEM?' She asked softly.

Sebas shook his head as Neia straightened herself up and began to put her armor back on and reclaim her gear, 'Sometimes people lose sight of what their values are really supposed to mean, or they apply even good values so narrowly that any evil becomes good if it is turned on someone outside their narrow view. I don't know, and perhaps I never will.' He said, and stepped back as color returned to Neia's face.

Neia nodded, 'Whatever the reason, many paid for her folly.'

By this time, uninvolved city guards had begun to filter in and...

They found very ugly situation. The wounded were being gathered up together, friend and foe alike, though only foes were were bound. In other circumstances, it might have been questionable just what happened, but thanks to the war with Jaldabaoth, there was no an ample number of people with experience looking at the aftermath of combat, and it was very clear who the aggressors had been, the burned bodies on the other side of the various barriers, had included noble household troops, a few paladins, and armed men of uncertain allegiance, while on inside of various barriers, were only Black Justice, and everybody knew this was the area of the city they occupied...but if the commander needed any further confirmation, it was given when he approached and Remedios woke up chained together behind her back.

'Why...did you attack them?' The commander asked.

'They're EVIL! They're EVIL!' They're EVIL! Remedios screamed, 'Why doesn't anyone GET that?! She serves the undead, she's his brainwashed servant, they all deserve to die!'

More witnesses than he needed, but he had them all. The commander shook his head.

'How many dead?' He asked Neia.

'Among ours? About ten, maybe twenty, I haven't heard from everyone yet.' She answered.

'Among theirs though...they lost somewhere around one thousand three hundred, but we're still counting, you can have the wounded if you want.' She finished saying, and the commander's eyes bulged.

'How...' He asked.

'I figured out what they were likely to do, then I set up barriers, I changed available paths of approach, I stationed people on the rooftops with bows, had scouts watching for where they were coming from, and took control of the flow of battle by removing their leader immediately as a threat, while she was trying to hurt me, her side was losing. Between that and getting hit on all sides, they were just standing corpses holding weapons, and all we had to do was push them over.' Neia said nonchalantly.

'I am not looking forward to explaining this to the king.' The commander said as he looked at the half mad struggling and screaming Remedios, not but a few feet away from dead paladin with an arrow sticking out of his eye.

'Well, I didn't enjoy killing them either we were on the same side of things when Jaldabaoth came, that man over there with the arrow in his eye, he was with us when we went to the Sorcerer King, he was with us when were just a rag tag liberation army, I wouldn't ever have wished him dead, but he made his choice and was willing to kill me and everyone with me. It was a stupid waste, but we've all got to do what we've got to do.' Neia said, and as she privately contemplated the result of these events, she felt an abiding sadness well up which, in that moment, she didn't think she'd ever really be rid of, no matter what happened after this.

 **AN: Well I hope y'all liked this chapter, I know, its different, you were probably expecting Neia to fight Remedios head on, to crush her with the power of Nazarick, but honestly, that wouldn't have made sense, even with a year of hands on power leveling, in the NEW World, there are natural limits that some people hit, and Neia was never written as an adamantite potential character. Sure she can gain experience, she can grow in learning and strategic ability, she can make herself far more dangerous in some ways, just by virtue of the learning of Nazarick, but one thing reiterated in the source material is that 'talent' something innate in someone, is either there or not there, and if it isn't, they're not going to go far, Climb for example is 'capped at gold' Neia, has shown that she can increase her skills as an archer to a degree far beyond what she can with a sword, its expressly said that with that, 'she has no talent', so there is simply no way for her to personally beat Remedios in combat, even if with her equipment, training, and unusual style of combat, she could fight a level higher than what she actually is. But if I'd given her the win in combat against an adamantite level paladin, I wouldn't be staying true to her character anymore, it would be someone totally different, and I don't want to do that, I want this to be the story of the Neia we've read about in the Holy Kingdom arc, not just some OC sharing her name and circumstances. So, I hope you understand why it went the way it did, and are as happy with it as I am. REVIEWS WELCOME! :)**


	6. The Fruit of Folly

When the sun crested the city, and the wounded attackers were taken by the city guard, and the dead of their enemies were gathered together for identification and later burial, there remained two tasks to be done in the light of day. The first and most obvious was what to answer the question of what to do about Remedios. In the end, Sebas used a series of precision strikes to paralyze her without killing her, while Robel was sent to the castle to inform the King of what had happened, and explaining that Neia would have presented herself, but had to cope with the aftermath on site.

As Neia stood over a now paralyzed Remedios, CZ came up behind her and hugged her. Silent as ever, it startled Neia and she jumped away, actually tripping over the commander of the paladin order's still form, and landing most undignified, on her ass. CZ's expressionless face met Neia's surprised look and she said, 'You fall cute.'

Neia actually laughed at that, and CZ extended a hand to help her up, which Neia gratefully accepted. 'Thank you for the help CZ.' Neia said.

'Without you, we would have suffered more losses.' Neia's face went somber, and CZ replied, 'Always bring guns to sword fights.' Neia looked at her quizzically, not even a hint of understanding on her face.

'Something my creator said.' CZ replied, and then went quiet, adding no real information to the meaning of her words.

Gilcrest approached Neia before more questions could be asked about the odd turn of phrase, and said, 'I have the casualty count.'

Neia's face turned grim. 'How bad was it?' She asked.

'Not as bad as it would have been.' He said, doing his best to cushion the blow.

'How...bad...was it?' Neia said, more slowly this time, clearly in no mood to have any blows cushioned.

'We suffered thirty two dead and eighteen wounded. The wounded are being treated now.' Gilcrest said, flipping the page.

'And of my hundred?' She asked.

'No casualties.' He said, 'It looks like whatever you're doing with them, is paying off, I saw how some of them performed out there, it was brilliant.'

Neia accepted the praise in silence, 'This victory feels hollow,' she sighed, 'OK...yes...we survived, we could even call it an overwhelming triumph, the soldiers of corrupt nobles are not only taken down, but because we can identify them, we know which nobles joined hands against us, not to mention the extermination of any criminal thugs that got in on it thinking it would be easy to loot our bodies...they won't cause trouble anymore...and on top of that, our fiercest paladin opponents are, with one obvious exception, dead, at least in this city...though it may end up raising more elsewhere, we now have security here.' She shook her head and continued. 'But even with all that, even with the brutality and cruelty and treachery of Remedios being laid bare as the story of her unflinching eagerness to kill her own people and slay someone who was neither armed or resisting...and we WILL spread that story, even with their humiliation...we still have dead to mourn, and all we really did was kill our own people.'

Gilcrest shook the papers in his hands and said, 'I won't deny the horror of what we had to do, but THEY made that choice for us, and if we hadn't done what we did, everything you've achieved, everything we've achieved, would all fall apart, and it could have been even worse, suppose the Sorcerer King had been so offended that he cut off reconstruction supplies, sure the Capitol is nearly done, but the nation is still decimated, we'd have no end of suffering in sight, and who knows what would have happened?'

'You're right,' Neia said, 'I know you are, but seeing your hero like...well...that,' she gestured to the paralyzed Remedios, 'and having to bury those who chose to follow me.' She paused and spread her hands out in exasperation, 'I don't know, if there was a better way to do this, I didn't see it, and now its done. Robel is probably at the castle by now, so lets see to the dead.'

As Neia and Gilcrest walked over to where the dead were being laid out, Gilcrest asked her, 'Will you burn them like you did Gascon? Even with official recognition, the other temples will not offer any services for our dead, and since you're our leader, our founder really, and now that we have official recognition, you'll be recognized as a kind of priest.'

Neia had been drinking from her water skin when he got to the word 'priest', and it caught her by such surprise that she spent the next minute choking and coughing up water. Gilcrest started pounding on her back to help her recover, and when she did, she looked at Gilcrest like he'd grown a second head.

'OK...a warrior priest, archer priest, but seriously just what did you think would happen when we gained official status? A temple without a priesthood is little more than a fanclub of god, the followers of Black Justice need true guidance, not just in how to fight, but how to comport ourselves, how to treat our neighbors and how to live our lives in accordance with the will of the god of Justice.' He raised his thumb from his fist and gestured behind him to where a paralyzed Remedios still lay unmoving. 'That thought she understood justice, she thought she was justice, she was obviously wrong, but what good is it to say we follow the god of justice if we do not know what justice truly means?' He said.

Neia gave the matter thought, tapping her sheath in a rhythmic and almost musical fashion as the turned the problem over in her head.

'I dislike the idea of being considered a priest.' Neia said. 'Its one thing for me to give sermons and speeches, hell I'd even overthrow a city if I had to, if that is what it took to see things right, but do you really see me wearing priestly robes and delivering blessings?' She looked at him with an expression that read, 'Have you MET me?'

'Well, how do you see it?' Gilcrest asked.

'We're doing something completely new here. Something that hasn't been done in six hundred years, since the lesser gods descended to the world. I think if we're doing something new, we should use different things than what those around us are now using. I remember on my last trip to Nazarick, I was reading a book in the library of Ashurbanipal, it was about a religious leader whose holy city was going to be attacked by an enormous horde, he went outside the city, and all alone faced off against the horde chieftain named Atilla, who had burned countless cities before without fear or failure, and with no army at his back, he promised that angels with flaming swords would personally cut him down if he chose to attack this one. Rather than face such a death, Atilla lead his entire army away. I will take his title. I will call myself a Pope.' She said.

'Pope Neia.' Gilcrest said. 'I like how it sounds.'

'Me too.' Neia said. 'I hope Lord Ainz approves.'

'That is the last of them.' A Black Justice member said, as he gently placed the last body in a row.

'Thank you,' Neia said, 'Now we're going to the castle, the King seems to have misplaced his most important paladin, we should return her to him.'

She approached the paralyzed woman who was staring daggers at an indifferent Sebas. 'Sebas, how long will she stay paralyzed?' Gilcrest asked.

'About two more hours, though you can snap her out of it by casting a healing spell on her.' Sebas replied.

'Thank you Sebas, we'll see to that at the castle. But for now...' Neia turned to several of her people nearby, 'Load her in a cart, we'll take her to the castle, one of the priests in the court can heal her.' This was done and in the light of day, the greatest paladin in the country was wheeled through the streets in a cart like a load of vegetables to market. Black Justice members, as well as city guards, were gossiping about the events of the night before, and bystanders who saw the commander of the paladins, paralyzed in a cart, had new fuel for the morning gossip.

They took the 'long' route to the castle, ensuring they passed through market districts and by taverns and houses of ill repute, everywhere from which rumors would spread and stories would grow, and as a result, it took an hour to get there instead of half that time, and just as Neia and her party wheeled Remedios in unceremoniously, she heard Robel and one of the few remaining guardsmen that was not a member of Black Justice...the same man who took the information down in the morning, and had seen to the arrests and confinement of a number of people who had been fleeing their failure...finish giving their reports to King Caspond.

The King saw them first, as all others were facing away from the door, but as his face showed his recognition others turned, and quiet talk became total silence. Of all the astounding events they had just heard, they had been skeptical. However here was irrefutible evidence in the form of a paralyzed Remedios being wheeled in. Only the squeak of the cheap little wagon broke the silence as she was brought in front of the throne room and dumped unceremoniously in front of the King.

King Caspond, for his part, said dryly, 'I suppose that quells any doubts about the truth of the report we've just received.' From the looks of people in the court, it had.

Neia and her party knelt before the throne after delivering their 'evidence', and awaited the King's word.

'Can she be...revived I guess I should say?' Caspond asked.

'Majesty, she can be released with a simple healing spell.'

'Then let it be done, I would hear her claims from her own lips.' The King said.

A priest, who wore a shocked and horrified expression, stepped forward and cast his spell, and a moment later Remedios started struggling and writhing in her chains, striving to break them, but they were beyond her, and through clenched teeth she hissed and groaned her rage until it became clear it was impossible, and she could only lie there.

No one in the court moved a muscle while she struggled, and it was only when her noise and struggle ceased, that the King spoke.

'Well?' He said. 'Explain yourself.'

Remedios turned her head to look at him, 'I'm a PALADIN! Its my job to exterminate evil and threats to my country, and she is BOTH, her people are BOTH! They serve the undead, the undead are all evil, therefore THEY are all evil, the undead are a threat, therefore THEY are all a threat!' She shouted, clearly enraged beyond all measure at her condition and their failure to recognize or understand the truth she saw in her words.

'You tried to kill five hundred of your fellow citizens, people you're supposed to protect, by slaughtering them in their sleep, the same people who work tirelessly and free of corruption not only for the security of this city, but also for the rebuilding of it? Did you not think of what would have happened even if you had succeeded?!' A nobleman shouted, 'She was the squire of the Socerer King, she's his chief contact in the shipment of reconstruction supplies, what if he had been so offended by her death that he cut those supplies off?! What if he considered the attack on those who love him, as an attack on him, and invaded to avenge them? You couldn't beat Jaldabaoth. The Sorcerer King defeated Jaldabaoth. How did you plan to defeat an invastion by the Sorcerer King?!' The noble continued, a deathly silence fell. The reports of the Sorcerer King's military forces...the death knights, the pale riders, the numerous elder liches, the giant monsters he'd summoned at the Katze Plains, his personal hand to hand victory over the arena champion in the Empire...these things ran through their minds, and Remedios's reputation fell farther with each remembering.

Remedios was silent...she had not actually considered any of that.

The noble continued, 'Our nation is in shambles, if we here in the North provoke a war or even provoke the removal of aid from our country by some stupid ill thought out attack on our own people because they admire the leader that saved their lives, what do you think the Southern Kingdom will do? You very well could have forced them to cede just to save themselves the danger of the hostility of the Sorcerer King, you could have destroyed your Kingdom, you could have lead us to ruin, but there is no way your actions could have SAVED US!' He snapped.

Remedios's eyes were filled with hate, and she turned her face in the direction of Neia, and spat at her, it landed short, prompting Neia to speak. 'You missed your mark again Commander Remedios.' Neia removed her visor and gave her the hard eyed gaze that Neia had used to terrify numerous enemies, human and demihuman alike, but dumb as she was, Remedios was not a coward, and she met that gaze head on. 'Face it, my justice, is the justice of a god, and your justice, is the justice of a butcher, I'm glad the holy queen is not here to see how low you've fallen.'

At the mention of the holy queen, Remedios began to scream and writhe again, desperate to loose herself from her bonds.

'Sire,' Neia said, 'I humbly ask that justice be given to us, for the sake of the unprovoked attack on those who serve you, and the sake of those who suffered and died...on both sides, the Kingdom must know that the King's justice is to be revered, not mocked.'

Caspond nodded. 'Remedios Custodio, we have been patient with you as we can be, you tried to kill the same one who ensured your safety and forgave your previous unprovoked attack, you have stained the reputation of the Paladin Order to such a degree that I cannot even imagine how long it will take to rebuild the trust the people had in it, you have attempted to kill your fellow citizens, and you cost numerous lives without any reason of merit. You are hereby stripped of your command, you are stripped of your title as a paladin, you are stripped of all honors, and you are going to be executed for your crime as a common criminal, hanged until dead in the public square for murder and conspiracy against the Kingdom. Your name will be stricken from all the rolls of Kingdom history, and it will never be spoken at all. You will die a forgotten and nameless traitor. Let that be the end of you, and suffice it to say, the mission you have been preparing to go forth and combat real evils in the form of remaining demihumans, is now denied you and your order. What is more, the Sorcerer King will be informed of your actions, and when you die, your body will be offered to him as a tribute, to do with as he wills, and to ease any anger he may have at the insult you have hurled at him, perhaps he will refuse, perhaps he will do nothing, perhaps he will raise you as one of his undead servants, but you'll go to the noose, not knowing your fate. Whatever happens, we will say nothing of it, because the Holy Kingdom does not care about the fates of dead traitors. You have truly fallen, paladin.'

Eyes turned downcast from priest and paladin alike, and against her will, Neia felt a swelling of pity for the fallen hero, as Remedios's cry of heartbreak rang out, Neia was reminded of the father who mourned his child after that child had been used as a hostage, and Remedios's cries of 'No...no...Calca...Calca...No...my Queen...my Queen...' Until her words drifted into sobs that were beyond incoherent.

'Get that out of here, throw it in the dungeon and secure it.' King Caspond said with a voice filled with the utmost contempt. A group of guards came in, tossed her struggling form into the cart she'd been brought in on, and wheeled her out.

'Does anyone dispute any part of my sentence?' The King asked, his voice making it clear that there had better be no such arguments. There were none, the priests and paladins who were present, looked down in an abiding shame, while several nobles had held and continued to hold barely disguised fearful expressions. It was obvious to Neia that Robel had explained that household soldiers wore the emblems of their houses, and that Black Justice was in the process of identifying them. If the King had given any specific orders to carry out, she didn't know, but she had enough to do as it was.

When they were dismissed, they returned to the Black Justice administrative area, where large amounts of rubble and former buildings were being cleared to make space for the temple, while others had erected a large bonfire for their dead. The service echoed that of Gascon, and when the bodies were burned, Neia scattered the ashes over where the temple was to be built, the names of those who died were written down, and along side Gascon's, they now had thirty three martyrs to their cause of ideal justice.

It was all a blur to the weary group, and Neia and her hundred soon found that they had to return to the gate point, and they found it open and waiting for them. Sebas walked through first, followed by CZ, who first insisted on planting two stickers on Neia's cheeks, and then Neia followed with her band of elites. They found themselves in the throne room, where the Sorcerer King was holding audience with Pluton Ainzach, and their discussion was just wrapping up. Neia waited patiently, but the Sorcerer King waved Neia over to join them.

She knelt beside Pluton, and the Sorcerer King introduced them. 'Neia, have you met Pluton before?' Neia shook her head. 'He is head of the adventurer's guild in E-Rantel, he has made great contributions to the wellbeing of my country and tot he growing strength of our adventurer teams.'

'Your majesty gives me to much credit, without your vision for our future, we might have continued to lose young men and women in their prime, it is thanks to you, that we prosper as we do.' Pluton said.

Neia was more than a little surprised, rumors had reached her of some of the reforms being made to the adventurer's guild, but only in fragments. 'I have heard something of your work,' Neia said, 'and when time permits, if his majesty allows it, I would like to study the methods you've been applying, perhaps there is something we can learn from in what you do, to improve ourselves.'

Pluton had a genuine smile on his face, 'His majesty was just telling me of your work in the establishment of Black Justice, he also mentioned your recent victory against a force of paladins and other soldiers over three times your number, which you eliminated with very few losses. That is no easy feat, and I have to say I am very interested in the martial art form that you've developed that allowed you to accomplish this, when you establish a temple in E-Rantel, please visit us at the adventurer's guild, we'll have much to share with one another I am sure.'

Ainz nodded, 'I very much approve. The strength of knowledge is made greater by the exchange of it, where each one learns from the other, they build themselves up, and both are strengthened as a result, this equivalent exchange is the best way to see to common prosperity. When Neia has finished her work in laying the foundation for the Holy Kingdom, I will grant her land to build a temple in E-Rantel, and the ability to travel to it personally to commemorate it's opening. I will ensure also, that there is time for the two of you to collaborate on one another's work.'

There was a duet of enthusiastic responses, 'Yes majesty!' and Neia and Pluton shared an enthusiastic grin.

'Now Pluton, I believe you have things to do, and Neia, so do you, good fortune to both of you.' Ainz said, and they got up, bowed, stepped back several paces, and parted ways after a brief firm handshake from each other.

Training resumed for Neia and her elites as if it had never broken, and they learned how to create varioous traps and lay complex ambushes, the arts of deception in maneuver were employed, and practiced without stopping over and over again, until every motion became instinctive, and each of them could identify favorable positions and unfavorable ones for ambushes, encampments, and more. They were taught how to spot ambushes, by noting where birds do not land, as well as how to look for signs of artificial modification indicating the passage of possible enemies.

And then it was back to individual combat, and they began to chain attacks and defense together, and Sebas guided them in the many grips that can be used to turn an enemy's power against themselves by using principles of leverage, and how to use the environment to control the flow of combat. When all that was done, after what felt like forever, Neia and Zaryusu again found themselves in the library, where they resumed their painting from memory practice to continue to improve their ability to remember small details from a moment's glance.

But then there were the books...Neia found herself studying seigecraft, and learned of large towers that could move up to and deposit warriors in great numbers, and how to defend against them, and much to her frustration, she found herself having to memorize not only the plans for these things, but also the mathematical formulas used to calculate the range of the more distance oriented seige weapons. She laughed at how easily a seemingly unstoppable weapon named 'The Destroyer of Cities' was stopped just by predicting where it would attack from, then flooding that area so it would get stuck in the mud, forcing it to be abandoned without ever having destroyed a single city. Likewise, she was in awe when she read about cities being attacked by diverting rivers.

'What...magic could do that?' She asked the goblin strategist?

'None.' He replied. 'They did it without magic, why they didn't use any, I don't know, but they did not.'

Neia sat numbly for a few minutes as she imagined diverting a river to sweep away an army of demihumans. How well would that work? In the end she decided, 'Pretty damn well for most of them.' And she filed that away in her memory for possible future use.

The grinding never stopped, the learning never stopped, except to quiz them on what they had learned, and then it resumed again. It felt 'longer' this time, but the reward at the end, was much appreciated. Neia was rewarded with some extra time visiting with CZ. 'Come Neia, let me show you around.' CZ said in her customary flat but subtly friendly voice.

'Is that really alright?' Neia asked.

CZ didn't smile, her expression didn't really change...ever, but that was OK, Neia could determine her mood from certain inflections of her voice that others did not seem to notice, and when she said, 'Yes.' Neia detected a hint of happiness.

The next three hours were the most marvel inducing experiences of Neia's life. From a simple bar that was tended by a figure with an odd mushroom like head, to the array of maids of astonishing beauty, it seemed like nothing in the world, it was like walking through a dreamscape. Then she arrived at the treasury, and was greeted by a well dressed faceless fellow that somehow spoke, 'Guten tag mein guten frau!' he said to her as he held a hand over his chest and bowed deeply. 'CZ has told me you are being given a tour, so please enjoy yourself, however you must touch nothing, the defenses are not lowered.'

Neia had no idea what he said at first...but the rest prompted a somewhat nervous nod. 'I will follow your advice...sir.' She said.

In the privacy of his bedroom, Ainz facepalmed as Neia met Pandora's Actor, for the thousandth time he wondered what he was thinking when he created that NPC in that way. 'How embarrassing!' he exclaimed to himself. 'I authorized her tour so that I could see the expressions of wonder I saw on the face of Nemu and Enri Emmot...not so I could be embarrassed again by...that.' He shook his head at it all over again, and dropped his skeletal hand with a sigh, the plus side of this New World was that their tastes seemed to diverge to such a degree from his own that what he frequently considered absurd, they found noble and enthralling. He didn't get it, but he was grateful for it.

When Pandora's Actor stood aside and allowed them to pass through the door to the treasury, he got to see what he wanted. 'By the dead gods...' Neia said as she saw the unbridled wealth of the Sorcerer King, coins made of precious metals piled high as the ceiling, and in a room so large she could not see the end of it, equipment that even with her limited skills, she could see were beyond priceless, lay scattered about like so much garbage, and that was without counting the precious jewels and indescribable artwork. 'There isn't a king in this world who has ever had wealth like this before...' She said breathlessly.

'This is but a fraction of it all,' Pandora's Actor said, 'this is only one room of the treasury, beyond this, there are more rooms with the more valuable equipment and the more worthwhile materials, these are the things not considered worth counting in detail.'

'The Sorcerer King gathered all this...?' Neia asked.

'Not alone, the other 40 supreme beings were with him to gather most of it.' CZ said.

'The what?' Neia asked, 'I've heard that reference before...but what are those? Are those beings created by Lord Ainz?'

Pandora's Actor shook his head, 'No, those are the other 40 creators, the dear friends of our lord, who created or gathered all this.'

'They...created a sky underground? They created lakes and waterfalls and green rolling hills...they created everything here...?' Neia asked in awe and disbelief.

'Yes.' CZ and Pandora's actor said together.

'They were amazing, Lord Ainz's friends were amazing, they must have been gods like him.' Neia said as she stared around her.

'That is how we see them.' Pandora's Actor said. 'Please, continue your tour and enjoy.'

In his quarters, Ainz shut off the mirror of remote viewing, he had seen what he wanted to see, and it made him happy. Let her continue the tour in private, he had something to discuss with Sebas. After summoning him, Sebas did not have him waiting long.

'So, your bodyguarding assignment.' Ainz said.

'Yes my lord?' Sebas said from his kneeling posture.

'Neia was badly hurt.' Ainz said.

'She was.' Sebas said.

'Is that not the opposite of guarding someone's body?' Ainz asked with a hint of sarcasm.

'If I failed you my lord, please punish me appropriately.' Sebas said, a nervous sweat began to break out on his brow.

'Why did you allow her to be injured.' Ainz asked.

'She wished to face her foe herself, I think to prove she was worthy to lead, and so that she could defeat her opponent on her own terms.' Sebas replied.

'I see. So she planned to shame her adversary when she couldn't defeat her in combat, rather than hide behind her more powerful guard and be shamed herself.' Ainz said, it wasn't a question, so Sebas remained silent as Ainz contemplated the matter. In his own mind...as much as Neia had been hurt...the reasoning reminded him of his battle with Shalltear, his need to prove himself, to himself, as much as to others, he had been injured in the fight, but he had won...though she had fought...very differently than he, she had also won, insomuch as a victory could be won there, and she hadn't actually died, whereas Ainz had not been able to avoid a kill or be killed battle. In that respect, he saw Neia as having done something he could not, even if their conditions were different.

Sebas had continued to sweat profusely during the silence of his master, and Ainz snapped back to reality. 'Its not a problem, you did prevent her death, and she went out knowing she would be injured but did not prevent you from fulfilling your duty, however if the matter comes up again, inform her that I have instructed you to prevent any harm from coming to her person.' Ainz said.

Sebas bowed his head. 'As you say my lord. No one will harm her again while I am present.'

'Good. You are dismissed.' Ainz said, and Sebas removed himself from the room.

When the tour was over, CZ returned to the throne room to inform Ainz, and she came with Neia in tow.

'Welcome back Neia, CZ, how did the tour go?' He asked, as if he had not seen most of it.

Neia knelt in front of him with head bowed, 'If I saw in any other place, the things I have seen here, I would have thought I was in a fever dream. Your realm is beyond amazing my lord, your friends...they must have been truly worthy to be by your side, it was amazing to see such marvelous works, my only disappointment is my youth.' She said.

'Your youth?' Ainz asked, 'How do you mean?'

'Because my lord, I am very young, and yet already I have peaked in life, I will live the rest of my life never seeing anything else so amazing again, what could ever, in a thousand lifetimes, top all of that?' Neia said.

Her voice was deeply sincere, and what she said pleased Ainz immensely, and it prompted deep and sincere laughter from the undead King.

'It swells my heart...metaphorically speaking,' Ainz said, 'to hear you praise my realm and my friends so. Moreover I have seen your performance on behalf of my ideals, and I was watching how you handled Remedios during the fighting, you bled for me and for my ideals, you have performed as admirably as a human can, and as such, you should be rewarded. What would you have?' He asked.

'To continue to serve you my entire life is reward enough.' Neia said.

Ainz leaned forward, 'My guardians and servants here often say the same thing, and I shall tell you as I have told them. This is a wonderful drive, and it pleases me on many levels, but it is OK to want something all your own, I encourage you to have desires independent of my service, because your happiness and growth spring not from mindless service, but from dynamic thought, engagement, and and satisfaction with how you live. So please, name your reward.'

Neia felt a little nervous at the tone of voice he used, it wasn't hard to conclude that he had repeated a similar statement many times and did not like doing so as often as he did, but after a moment's thought, she had her answer. 'My lord, as our temple is gaining recognition and will soon have buildings of our own to dedicate to you, we will need a priesthood, and they will need the knowledge and skills to serve the people. I would ask that you allow the elect who choose that vocation, to train in their vocation as we have trained in ours, so that they will be skilled in the beginning, and can better render honor through your temples to your name.'

'A good request.' Said Ainz. 'It is granted, when the full doctrine is written, there will be two per temple allowed to come to my realm, and live in the frozen moment, studying, learning to argue it, and gaining an education suitable for serving the interests of the people. This will continue until the eldest of them age, and then they will be allowed to build an official school among the nations of mortals, for others to train under them directly as all other students do.' Ainz said.

Neia did not even try to hide her smile. 'Thank you my lord.' She said. 'When may I receive your sacred words?' She asked.

'Shit.' Thought Ainz.

 **AN: OK so I know this chapter wasn't filled with thrills and chills, but it does serve to bridge the gap on some information and lay the foundation for what is to come, so I couldn't really skip this material, as it is, I hope you're pleased with the outcome for Remedios Custodio in this chapter, I'd say it is well deserved. Now frankly...I've written and rewritten this author note about a dozen times because I wasn't sure how to say this, or even if I should. But I'll go ahead anyway. When I write stories, they're not just a sequence of events, they're arcs, arcs that contain, to some degree at least, a portrayal of how I see human character and the ends to which it can lead us. This is the case with each of the significant characters in this story, and perhaps you've noticed the difference between Remedios & Neia is...not as large as it first appears. Perhaps you didn't but will now start thinking about what separates them from one another, and it is that key difference, which I hope you'll discover on your own, that differentiates hero and villain. I don't know if anyone is born evil, but I do know that the path to evil, is one where a person damns themselves by many small choices that shape their personal evolution, there is no one moment where they switch from good to evil in a great leap, they're damned by inches, step by step never knowing how far they've strayed from the moral compass they began with, until they would barely recognize their present self, if their past self could see them. The human soul, or heart, or whatever term you prefer, is really the only story worth telling, and every hero is someone's villain, and every villain is someone's hero, the way we tell the difference, tells us who we are.**

 **I hope you continue to enjoy this story as it continues to branch out and evolve. Truth be told, I have enough material in my head that this may well end up being one of the largest stories on this website, but how far it really goes, depends on how far it goes before it is not worth telling anymore.**

 **Thanks again for reading! Reviews are always welcome, those are my writing FUEL! :)**


	7. The Damned & the Dead

Ainz thought furiously over the question, while Neia waited patiently at the base of his throne, finally a thought occurred to him. 'If you were to ask a lion to explain something to a flower, would you expect the flower to understand?' Ainz asked.

'No sire.' Neia said, her voice revealed her uncertainty about his meaning.

'If a lion were to explain something to another lion, do you think they would understand each other?' Ainz asked.

'Yes sire.' Neia answered.

'Are my followers...like me...or are they mortals?' Ainz asked again.

'Mortals sire.' She answered, her voice growing in confidence as she began to understand.

'Then it should be written by mortals. You are best suited to explaining my will to them, and you will write the lessons you have learned from me. You may correspond with me on our journey, simply send your letters back to the capitol, and I will have someone pick them up, and respond accordingly, but in general I see no need to do more than review your work and ensure you have truly understood my ideals. Understood?' Ainz said.

'As you say, your majesty.' Neia replied enthusiastically.

'Then you may go, I understand you have much to do, and...also here...give these to the families of those who died in defense of sacred ground and sacred lives.' He said, and he gestured a maid to come forward, she held a small chest in her hands, and a long sack strapped to her back. When the maid, who appeared to be handling it easily, handed it to Neia, she almost buckled from the surprise, she knew that weight...it was gold.

'Majesty...is this truly...?' Neia began.

'If people give their lives for you or for your ideals, it is the same, is it just to let their families grow weaker because they have expended themselves on your behalf?' The Sorcerer King said. 'The coins will ensure that they have the means to live, despite the loss of the patriarchs and matriarchs of their houses, and inside that sack there is a set of blades, so that they will always have a means to protect themselves.'

Neia openly wept, and barely managed to get out an intelligible 'Thank you, your majesty.' before the gate opened and she was forced to depart again.

 **In a private room in the castle...**

'Now that Remedios is to be executed, what happens to her mission?' Gustav asked Count Handor.

'Most likely his majesty will give that task to you. There's no way he'll cancel it completely, the problem of the decline of the paladin's reputation has only been made worse now. Its been a little over two weeks since Neia was notified of her impending mission to escort Tinamoc, and even though I don't expect her to do much out beyond the capitol when she leaves, I am not going to underestimate her ability to make waves HERE while she remains. That will be a problem, as long as Black Justice is seen presenting its best face, there's nothing that can be done that won't make their opponents look worse.' Count Handor said pragmatically.

'When is she supposed to die?' Gustav asked.

'Tomorrow.' Count Handor replied. 'The priest's execution has been bumped to the right a little, he is going to be hanged at the end of the month, the day Neia leaves the capitol, they don't want to many of the religious factions being punished at once, so he'll die without much fanfare, being executed among a handful of other criminals so that nobody takes much note of him, but Commander Remedios can't be delayed long, her attempt involved over a thousand people, and among the great houses who backed her action, there's a desire to see her pay for it.'

'By pay for it, I assume you mean killer before she can speak about who backed her, and make it possible to just bury the memory of their involvement in the public mind? Gustav said sharply.

'Exactly.' Said Count Handor. 'I lent my troops too you know, at least a few of them, though unlike some fools I had the sense to have my men wear unmarked armor, of course none of those who were dumb enough or to confident or to cheap, are also dumb enough to not know the implications of what will happen now that they've failed, when the bodies of their people wearing their insignias, are identified. If they hang Remedios quickly, they can move to have the bodies recovered and disposed of before any real investigation begins, just laying the whole thing at the feet of Remedios and hoping that is enough.'

Gustav pounded his hand on the table in frustration. 'DAMNIT REMEDIOS!' he shouted, 'How could you have done something so stupid!' The table broke and fell under the force of his blow, and he turned away in frustration and brought his hands up to his face, covering his eyes as his head turned up to the cieling. He knew his question was as foolish as her actions, and part of his anger was directed at himself for not seeing it coming and preventing it.

'I assume you're going to support those nobles in that effort as well?' Gustav said.

'Of course.' Count Handor replied. 'If I don't and it gets pushed through, I'll be remembered as opposing them, but if I do support them, and I tip the scales in their favor, they will owe me a debt when the time comes.'

Gustav nodded. 'I understand. You've backed the Paladin Order in the past, and you gave your support to the commander when she asked for it, and assuming you back me as her replacement, I will remember your support when the time comes.'

Count Handor clapped his hands together. 'Grand. Then we have a bargain.' Handor stuck out his hand, and after a long sigh he said, 'I still can't believe its come to this, after all we've endured...' And he reached out and clasped Count Handor's outstretched arm. Gustav noticed how soft the nobleman's hand was, it had no more firmness than a bowl of oatmeal. This however, was what it had come to. They parted ways, each set upon their course.

That night, while Neia was presiding over the funeral of her people's fallen, a fire broke out in a supply dump, and both Black Justice and city regulars formed bucket brigades to put it out, and as it rose, two more fires broke out nearby, forcing more and more residents to participate in fighting the flames, that might have been bad enough, but when the stables caught, the horses went wild, causing chaos throughout the city.

It was not until morning when the true cost of the fires was known, while relatively few buildings had in fact been burned, and only a handful of supplies lost thanks to the quick actions of the citizens, the horses took hours to round up, and roughly a hundred of them were missing. But that still was not all, when the relief shift went to the prison in the morning, they found two guards and a torturer dead, and most of the prisoners that had survived the attack on black justice, were completely gone. Several lay dead, indicating a struggle, but in the chaos and noise, nobody had noticed the alarm being raised. When Neia was informed of this, her first question of Robel and Gilcrest was, 'What is the status of Remedios Custodio?'

They hesitated for a long moment, and then Gilcrest replied...'She's escaped.'

Pieces clicked into place...the convenient fires that forced numbers away from their positions, the burning stables, so nobody would notice the missing horses until hours later, it all served as a means to get her out.

From experience, they were able to read her face, and Robel spoke first. 'You don't think it was a coincidence.'

'I hope you're not asking.' Neia said, 'Of course it wasn't. But Remedios didn't arrange this.'

'How do you know?' Gilcrest asked.

'Because I know Remedios, I served under her, I served beside her, she's a great fighter, but she is an idiot, single minded, she's not adept at creating complex plans, let alone plans that involve deception, her only redeeming mental quality is that she knows she's not the smartest of people and she lets others do her thinking for her, she'll happily take the credit for their thinking, but she's not going to do any real thinking herself. This took brains, and more importantly, it took outside help. I'll bet my bow that there are free paladins who just happen to be 'missing' also right about now. It looks like she still has some loyal to her, even after all this.' Neia said.

'What do we do?' Gilcrest asked.

'What can we do?' Neia asked.

Robel scratched his head.

'We were outmaneuvered this time, I didn't think anybody would take a chance like this for her, but that was stupid of me, I pulled a Remedios, by not thinking as they would think, Paladins are deeply loyal to each other, even a fool can be deeply treasured if they share the common bond of standing in the same order. I overlooked the obvious, the only saving grace here, aside from the fact that they didn't burn down the whole city, was that we were not personally responsible for securing the castle dungeons. Unless we're personally appointed to chase her down, there isn't much we can do, and even if we were given the authority to pursue her, it would cost a butcher's bill to bring her down. I don't doubt she'll be a problem, but at least for now, there is nothing we, or she, can do about each other.' Neia said, leading to collective but also unsatisfied shrugs.

'What of the priest who tried to kill me? What was his name...Gindist, Gindi...' Neia asked.

'Gindis.' Gilcrest replied. 'He was held in a different area of the prison, three guards were found dead, but so were six attackers, four of them with arrows in their bodies, so I suppose they failed to get the element of surprise, and the guards managed to wipe out that team before the last of them died himself. Gindis is still secure in his cell, no doubt much to his disappointment.' Gilcrest said.

'Were there any paladins among any of the bodies?' Neia asked.

'None that were not prisoners' Robel replied. 'That was my first question I asked when I was in the throne room receiving this information, however if any were killed in the attack, the bodies were taken.'

Neia nodded, 'This is just a guess, but I suppose none of the other prisoners, the thieves, rapists, murderers, that kind of thing...none of them were freed?'

'...That's right.' Robel replied. 'How did you know?'

Neia gave a knowing smile, 'Because they're paladins of justice. They weren't going to free 'real' criminals, even as a distraction.' Her voice carried the contempt she held for the hypocrisy she saw in their actions.

'I have only a few more trips to the Sorcerer King's realm and then I depart, while I am out on my escort mission, I will keep a...casual eye out, for any indication of trouble from Remedios or her people, but I doubt we'll see any. Tinamoc as far as Remedios knows...and as far as I know either, has only been assigned as my duty to escort because I have the skills necessary to scout and establish mobile defenses. So to her, he's innocent since he's not affiliated with I or the Sorcerer King. She won't risk him. In the meantime when I leave, ensure that you continue regular training, remember the fundamental rule, one can train ten can train one hundred can train one thousand. Those who exhibit talent for combat, assign as instructors and focus on extra training with them to refine their skills. What's more, look for those who have gifted voices and are interested in spreading our service to the god of justice. He has chosen to allow the wisdom of his will to be taught as I am taught in his home, to gain a wealth of knowledge in what is in reality only a moment in time, they will be few in number, but will serve our cause in serving him, far and away better than anyone could, merely figuring things out as they go.' She said.

'Amazing.' They said in unison. Which thing they found amazing, Neia wasn't sure, but she didn't ask, instead she said, 'You haven't seen anything yet, come to my office, I want to show you something privately before we distribute it.'

They followed her amiably to the privacy of her office, and she pointed to a small chest, 'Open it.' She said.

They approached, curious, and opened it. They didn't say anything at first, and the moment of silence stretched out as they stared at the coins.

'What is...this?' They said.

Neia didn't answer that question, and instead she closed the chest and pointed to a nearby sack that was drawn shut and upright. 'Look in there.' She said.

They went to the sack, undid the knot, and then drew out a set of magnificent swords.

'What is...?' They began, and Neia cut them off.

'These are the gifts from the Sorcerer King to the families of our dead. The coins to provide for their lives, and the swords to defend themselves against all threats.' She said.

'But that is...how can he...did he know how much is in HERE?!' Robel asked. 'Those swords bear runes! These are the sorts of things we here about high ranking adventurer's owning...and that chest was full of GOLD COINS!' He exclaimed.

'No, not only gold.' She said.

'Oh he just put the gold on top, its got silver or copper underneath?' He said, settling down as he thought he understood.

'No, underneath those are platinum coins.' She said as she shook her head in awe.

'PLATINUM?!' Robel and Gilcrest exclaimed.

'I'm distributing this tomorrow at a public ceremony where their family members died in our common defense. I have to divide up the coins now to make sure I give them out equally per family member, and I will present the swords to the eldest survivors. Please ensure the word has been passed.' Neia answered.

They nodded numbly and walked out, so shocked that they didn't even acknowledge Sebas as he entered.

'You intend to distribute all of it?' He asked.

'I do.' Neia said.

'You would not be considered wrong for keeping some of it you know.' He said.

'Yes I would. My orders put those people where they died, my cause brought them to a place where they'd die before their time, yes it was necessary, but I don't intend to profit from getting my people killed, even if it wasn't possible to save them all.' She answered. 'Maybe nobody would notice if I held back a single platinum coin. But I'd notice, and I wouldn't like myself for it.'

Sebas stroked his chin in thought, 'I see. You're a very...interesting human, Neia Baraja.' He said.

'Thanks...I guess.' Neia said with a slight smile. 'But you didn't come in here just to say something nice to me, did you?' She asked.

'No,' Sebas replied, 'Lord Ainz has informed me that you'll be spending twice as long at training this time, and wanted you to be mentally prepared for it. Also, you'll have several days of rest at the end, instead of just two.'

'I see,' Neia said, 'Is everything alright?' She asked.

'Nothing terrible.' Sebas said, 'Its simply that when time is frozen, Lord Ainz must remain to maintain it, if he leaves the area, it will be dispelled, and he has things to do elsewhere that will take him away from Nazarick.'

'I understand,' Neia answered, 'I had no idea we were imposing so much on him.'

'It isn't an imposition,' Sebas said, 'it is an investment. Lord Ainz has often said that people are more valuable investments than things. He expects you to accomplish great things, and so he wishes you properly prepared.'

'Please convey to him how moved I am, and that I will grind myself into the dust if that is what it takes to live up to his expectations.' Neia said.

She thought it over a moment and then asked, 'You heard about Remedios and the renegade paladins?'

'I did. They executed the operation flawlessly, or nearly so anyway.' Sebas replied.

'They're paladins.' Neia said. 'Professionals, even if they're wrong in what they do. Should I be concerned?' She asked.

'No more than usual.' Sebas said. 'They didn't have long to prepare for this, so they almost certainly have only the supplies on them that they can carry, and some of them are probably wounded, and I doubt they'll take the chance at healing the wounded until they're away from anyone who might notice and find it suspicious. There also aren't that many places they can go in the Holy Kingdom, not after all this.'

'I agree.' Neia said, 'That being the case, I'll get some rest.'

'Goodnight then.' Sebas replied, and walked out.

The next day was a flurry of activity, with rumors and stories being bandied about, the reputation of the Paladin Order plummeted ever lower. The evening culminated in two short notice evening ceremonies. One by the crown, bestowing the title of Commander of the Paladin Order on Gustav in place of the renegade paladin commander, Remedios Custodio...this one attended by thousands of citizens.

The other, a ceremony by Black Justice lead by Neia Baraja, attended by tens of thousands, commemorating the dead. One by one, the names of the dead were read off, and as each name was called, the family of the deceased would come up, and the eldest member would say, 'They are scouting the way ahead.' In response, Neia would say, 'This is the reward of the god of justice for his service, that you live well until you meet again' and she handed over a small sack of coins that she had proportioned out. 'And this also, that you may defend your lives while they are away.' And she would hold out the sword by the hilt to the eldest of age to wield it.'

When all the names were called, Neia stood in front of them all and said something she learned in the realm of Ainz Ooal Gown, 'There is no greater love, than to lay down one' life for a brother. They put their bodies between all of us and the desolation of evil's wrath, they knew the risks, and did what needed to be done anyway. They represent what is best within us, and among us, and their names will live forever. As they have cared for us, so we must care for those who they left behind. This is the wisdom and the will of the god of justice.' There were tears aplenty among family members of the dead and those who knew them, and Neia said, 'I open the floor to anyone who wishes to speak of the deceased, and then pay your respects to their families.' She then turned around, approached each one, and shook their hands and embraced them, before she moved out of the way.

An elderly man stepped forward, his back was hunched and his fingers gnarled, his speech was hoarse, but nonetheless he managed to make it loud enough to carry, 'I won't talk about the death of my son, he was not a lover of death, he was a lover of life, instead I wish to tell you, about how he lived. They say you can tell the man by who they are as a child, and my son showed the truth of this, when he was only seven he fought a bully of ten who was picking on a girl of five. When he found a coin dropped by a street vendor, he returned it. When Jaldabaoth attacked, he volunteered for combat before conscript rolls were called up, and when the Sorcerer King faced his defeat by Jaldabaoth, my son volunteered for the rescue squad. He always said that death was inevitable, but nothing else in life was, including how we'd die. He didn't believe in acting in fear, and that was how he managed to get his wife, when nobody else dared approach someone of her beauty, he did, and they married, and gave me a granddaughter...' He picked up a little girl who was not even old enough to properly walk, 'now he's gone, but he didn't have his life taken...he gave it, and gave it freely, for her, for you...for me. He never much liked pity, and neither do I, so I won't ask it, instead, just let me ask this...make sure that this was worth his dying for, make sure all this...' He gestured to the gathered multitudes, 'and all of you, do something worthwhile so he didn't die for nothing. Thank you.' He said, and aided by a young woman, probably his daughter in law, he hobbled back into place, his grandchild clinging to her mother, bearing the confused obliviousness all infants and toddlers have to the goings on around them.

There were other speeches, one by one that came and went, and when it was all over, many stayed to pay their respects to the family members. Neia however, was exhausted, she found she looked forward to her time in Nazarick, if only because training for the real world, was easier than dealing with the real world. She slept like the dead.

And the next morning, she found her waiting for her, and arrived just in time for the gate to open, it was a profound relief to step through and find herself immediately in the training grounds, and she found it an even greater relief when she was able to lose herself in motions, throwing a lizard man off balance, was easier than being thrown off balance by the ever changing nature of life in the capitol. Through the endless frozen moment, they moved with ever increasing grace, in the attack routines Black Justice had increased their survival rate from...almost nobody, to eighty percent or more, and in team combat against summoned monsters, they found they could now easily take on giants as long as they worked together.

'Remember,' Cocytus said, 'the process IS the result, it is by grinding away at your weakness and imperfections, that you will refine yourself into the ideal warriors, the ideal protectors, you will not get there in a day, a week, or a month, but by constantly testing yourself and practicing over and over, you will achieve the fullness of your potential. Weakness is your enemy, fear is your enemy, you needn't fear strength, if you are stronger, and if you fear for those you protect, do not let them be struck, and if you fear being struck, struck first, and avoid being struck.'

The lessons were hammered home over and over and over again, in scenario after scenario, bridge battles, forest ambushes, mountain paths, open fields, rolling hills, they faced constantly changing conditions for longer than they'd ever known them to last.

Until finally it came time for Neia and Zaryusu to return to the library. They painted, they read, they wrote, they answered questions, this time they began to learn advanced logistics and the difference between 'moving forward' and 'victory'. Scorched earth tactics appealed to neither of them, but they grasped the utility of it with a training exercise wherein one side retreated and destroyed the environment as they did so, and another trying to pursue them, supplies dwindled faster, frustration escalated, the power of these methods was clear.

The age of training came and went, almost to soon for Neia, even though she enjoyed the reward of free time when it was done to take her ease in a paradise, she knew she had to go back, and this time the customary farewell was brief and to the point, but wellwishes were said nonetheless, and the found themselves restored to the land they called home.

 **AN: Well I hope you like this chapter, I felt the need to clarify a few things in the story based on some of the previous reviews. Remember 'Memory and a Message' takes place several months after 'Training in Time' and 'God Rising' so you might not always immediately be able to line up events that haven't happened yet in the context of the main story.**

 **Training in Time takes place before the later chapters of 'God Rising' filling in a single one month block of time leading up to Neia's departure on her escort mission. This story is almost complete, and God Rising will still be going on. Remedios had been assigned a task, but hadn't left on it in the timeline before she went over the edge the way she did in Training in Time. She as you might have guessed...won't be going after all, she has a whole other role to play now. Will she and Neia encounter each other while Neia is traveling? Will she try to find some way to restore her position? Will she flee the Kingdom entirely in favor of the Slane Theocracy, or will she do something else entirely? Well you'll have to wait and see.**

 **I can promise however, that when the whole thing is told and done, you won't find any noteworthy discrepancies, it will all make sense. Just don't jump the gun. ;)**

 **As always...reviews welcome!**


	8. Meeting & Parting

Neia appreciated the quiet days. The extra time away from Nazarick to her from the place of her god, but it did allow her more mental focus to seeing to the capitol, many of the damaged homes had been demolished, and the area around her headquarters that was gifted by the crown was now free of debris, the abundance of materials from destroying the remnants of excessively damaged homes...and the homes of those who had betrayed the Holy Kingdom of course, all served to make the process easier.

However the real source of success lay in the skeleton laborers, the deceased who had tried to slaughter the citizens had been turned into skeletal labor under the control of Neia Baraja, a gift of the Sorcerer King which the Holy Kingdom nobility was hard pressed to refuse. The priests had sputtered objections, but there had been to much disgrace to care about their moral positions at the moment, and the general public considered it fitting that those who had tried to kill them, instead be made to serve them after dying. It was a radical turnaround from the previous attitude towards the undead that the people held a few years earlier.

Ironically it was the fact that nobles had lent troops that made it easiest to push through, they couldn't very well object when it was they who had helped participate in the attack. Some feeble opposition that might have been raised, Neia eased out of the way early by proposing that some of them be put to work on the noble's manor houses...something that appealed to their impatience as well as their vanity. Count Handor...whom Neia was quite sure had been involved in some way, had even applauded the idea. Some priests had left the capitol entirely as a matter of protest, a protest very few cared about or noticed.

The addition of over a thousand laborers that didn't sleep, eat, drink, tire, or sicken, sped things up mightily, as long as someone was on shift to supervise and instruct them, the skeletons worked unimpeded and without issue on all but the most delicate tasks. With the worst of her opponents shattered, dead, implicated, or fled, no real threats remained for the present, and much to her surprise, Neia found Gustav waiting at her office the day they were ready to break ground on the new temple.

'I wasn't expecting you.' Neia said sincerely.

'I wasn't expecting me either.' He said with a sardonic smile.

'Come into my office,' she said, 'while it still stands at least.'

She gestured towards the door, and even was kind enough to open it for him, and then she moved to her desk, sat, and invited him to do the same.

'You know why I'm here?' He said flatly as he shifted uncomfortably.

'No idea.' Neia said. 'Truly, no idea at all.'

'I came to say I'm sorry.' Gustav said.

'You say what now?' Neia asked, flabbergasted.

'For whatever it is worth, I had no idea what Remedios was going to do.' He said, his eyes meeting hers unflinchingly as he leaned in, his hands clasped nervously on the desk.

'I actually believe you.' Neia said.

'Wait...really?' Gustav said, surprise evident in his voice.

'Yes. Really.' Neia crossed her arms and stared back at him. 'Do you know why?' She asked.

'No idea.' He said, echoing her previous statement.

'We both know Remedios, even if you and I never worked all that closely together, we both know HER. She was a powerful individual, but a shit captain, she hadn't ever had an original thought in her entire life, she's a moron. If YOU had been involved, one of two things would have happened, either you'd have talked her out of it entirely and we wouldn't be sitting here right now, or you'd have done something less predictable, and again we might not be sitting here right now. The fact that she made such a ridiculous plan of attack...' Neia shook her head in disbelief, 'she didn't even consider that Black Justice, a group dedicated to strength, would have a night watch, she hadn't imagined that we'd predict her outrage at the authorization for our temple. It was rash, it was stupid, it was classic Remedios.' Neia said. Do you disagree?' She asked her guest.

'I suppose not.' Gustav admitted reluctantly.

'So lets get to the point, you want to know if I'm coming after you in any way, if I'm going to hit the remaining paladins in the city, you're worried, and I don't blame you for it.' Neia said.

Gustav looked at her with uncertainty, but stayed silent.

Neia stood and began pacing, she turned her face towards him and said, 'In no uncertain terms, I tell you, I am not planning any retaliation on any Paladin Order personnel in this city. The way I see it, everyone who thought like her, went with her or died where they stood, the ones who remain, either don't or she didn't think they did, and that includes you...and congratulations on your appointment by the way, I would have attended, but I had my own ceremony to attend to.' She said, causing him to wince a little at the memory of just why that was.

'However, don't think that automatically makes us allies, I haven't forgotten how you abandoned the King who came to save us, not a single paladin stepped up when the call went out to rescue the Sorcerer King. Or even to pretend to care about the lives of those he rescued who were attempting to repay a debt of blood and honor. I don't like your justice. Its cruel, its hypocritical, it is selfish, excluding all others from sharing the world. I've seen better and I want to make things better. If the Paladin Order can't change...' She paused from her pacing, and looked at him with something akin to pity, 'One thing I have learned studying under his majesty, is that the world is an ever changing place, those who cannot bend, break when there is no alternative. I don't hate my former order, and I do not revel in your current disgrace. I've pitied those who could not see what I saw, ever since we were just a rag tag band in a cave and I listened to you all plan how to use the king who came to save us, and used disrespectful words against him when he was not there, even while he had immediately observed a weakness in our way of doing things and offered a solution...but pity or not, mournful or not, we will clash again, not because I 'want' us to, but because your beliefs will force you to bring about conflict yourselves. If I can have peace and justice, I will have it gladly, but if you deny me the latter, I will destroy the former to claim both in the name of a better world. Given a choice, I'd rather you all be there to see it, but as Remedios showed us all, some people are not going to give us that choice' She said.

'How did it come to THIS?' Gustav asked aloud.

'If you follow where you're lead without thinking about where you'll end up, you can end up in some bad places without ever knowing how you got there.' Neia said sadly.

'Just remember, the Paladin Order has been around for centuries, and we have never failed to triumph in the end.' He said, to which she replied, 'That may be true, but the Paladin Order only survives to this day because of the one your renegade commander wants to destroy. He defeated what you could not, he gave you all your lives, he gave all of us a future. If it isn't right to follow him, to understand why someone so different from ourselves would risk themselves for us, I don't know what right is, do you?' She asked.

The fight seemed to go out of Gustav as he slumped in the chair, 'I don't...except to say it is right to protect our people from threats, I am still sure of that much.' He said.

'Sure enough that if you'd known Remedios's intent, you'd have stood on our side of the barricade when she came to kill us all?' Neia asked.

He stiffened. He was silent. After a long moment of looking at her face as if searching for an answer, he looked down and said, 'I...don't know.'

Neia nodded understandingly and touched his shoulder sympathetically. 'When you do know, then you'll have found what justice means to you, I have already found my answer.'

'You've come a long way from the brave little squire her sat in awe of adamantite adventurers.' He said softly.

'We've all come a long way since then,' she said, 'and some of us took different paths, but one thing bothers me about our most recent...divergences.' She said.

'Remedios is fairly dumb, so I know her rescue wasn't coordinated by her, I could easily see most other paladins being capable of executing something like that. But the attack on our position was planned quickly, sure its true that even...not being the brightest of persons, could still put together a battle plan quickly enough, but so far we've identified several known criminals among the dead, as well as some people who bear indications that they serve noblemen, probably household troops. It just doesn't seem likely that she could have pulled this off on her own, even as shoddy and sloppy as the plan was. So...can you think of anyone who might have been behind it?' She looked at him expectantly, her eyes focused like beams of light through a small hole in a window, he felt like his very soul was being searched. He shiverred.

'I can think of several candidates.' He said, looking down as a dark rage colored his face red.

'You'll be presenting that list to the King, rather than to myself, I assume?' She asked.

'I will.' He said, firmly, 'But,' he added, 'Given what Remedios was lead...guided...told...or caused to do, I'd give you that list if I could, if only because I think you'd do worse to them than I would.' He said with hate in his voice.

'Then we understand each other...Commander.' Neia said matter of factly, making a point of using his new title.

'We do.' Commander Gustav replied as he stood.

He extended his hand, and Neia took it, when he looked down, he saw how rough and calloused her hands were, and her eyes bore the look of a monster, if ever any did, but he did not flinch from monsters. 'Thank you for your time. He said.

'Thank you for your apology,' Neia said, 'even though you weren't at fault, I know you meant it, and I do hope, whether you believe me or not, that the Paladin Order regains its moral standing in the eyes of the people.

Gustav turned and walked out, leaving Neia to check on the status of new recruits that had begun to filter in, those who would have once aspired to be paladins, now swelled the ranks of Black Justice, a fact not lost on Gustav as he had to pass right by them. She almost pitied him that sight. Not quite...but almost.

Time ran out, as it tended to do, and in due course her people found themselves again before the Sorcerer King upon his throne, but this time there were several figures visiting his throne ahead of her. The first was known to her by reputation, 'Fludur Paradyne, he's...not as impressive to look at as I expected.' she said softly to herself. He was receiving a gift from the Sorcerer King, a book, and the weeping he let out in gratitude informed her of its value, he was bowing every other step as he walked backwards out the door.

The next, she knew his face from coins, 'Jircniv...emperor of the Baharuth Empire and vassal of the Sorcerer King.' She said in the same tone of voice to herself, he knelt before the King, and Neia silently listened.

'I thank you your majesty for the work you have put in on establishing roads between our lands, and in the lending of your undead laborers to build villages along the way to relocate our poorer citizens, you have given my people a brighter future, and we will not forget it.' He said

Ainz waved a hand in front of himself, 'Think nothing of it my dear friend Jircniv, this is not done as a charity, it is an investment in the brighter futures of our people, and what use is a monarch that does not do that, and what good is a community, that does not see to the wellbeing of its own?' He said as if it were an obvious statement.

'As expected of my liege, he is the embodiment of kingship.' Jircniv said, and when dismissed, he departed with his attendants, bowing with a genuine respect as he did so.

After them, Neia was confused, a man stood next to a war troll who was bedecked in adamantite equipment. 'Your request is granted,' the Sorcerer King said, 'when our arena is built, you will be the first to be able to stand in its center. The champions of the known world, will be gathered together to make for themselves immortal fame that will eclipse all triumphs that have come before.' He said.

'Thank you.' The war troll said simply but sincerely, and the man beside him, was visibly moved, it left Neia with a logical conclusion, that was the champion of the Baharuth Empire's arena, and the man who oversaw it all. She couldn't place their names, but she guessed their positions at the least.

When they were gone, Ainz turned his attention to Neia and her hundred, who knelt with eyes lowered. 'Welcome back Neia Baraja, are you ready for the final phases of your preparation before my departure?'

'Yes majesty, but may this humble servant ask you a question?' Neia said. Albedo was quick to snap out, 'Do not presume upon your master so easily!' Neia remained unmoved and silent, but Ainz interjected, 'Its fine Albedo, I'm sure she is just eager to see if there is some way she may serve me.' He said.

'It is as his majesty says.' Neia replied.

'Its no great secret to be classified from all others, and all will know of it soon enough anyway. I will be traveling to the adventurer's guilds of the various nations. I intend to promote our vision of change to all of them, in order to build greater cooperation and friendship between our nations. It will however, keep me very busy, and as such, I must ask you to work without rest this time.' He said in a somewhat apologetic voice.

'We will, your majesty.' Neia said enthusiastically.

'I believe you.' He said. 'Now go and see Cocytus, you have a lot to do.'

They bowed and withdrew, quickly rushing to the training grounds, where they found a...profoundly odd sight before them. Cocytus stood in front of 101 undead horses.

'Lord Cocytus...' Neia began, 'What are the horses for?'

'For you.' He said.

'You will learn mounted combat, to a degree I am sure you have some familiarity with it, however, not to the degree you will by the time we are done.' Cocytus said. 'Expect to fall down...a lot.' He said.

Unbeknownst to the rest of them, the other guardians had decided this would be entertaining to watch, and so they gathered together to watch remotely, and they were not disappointed. The horses, though undead, had been readied to react like living mounts, and as such, many humans tumbled in some unexpected ways, with some hilarious expressions, prompting ample laughter from the absent guardians. They watched for hours before it began to lose its appeal or other tasks began to draw them away.

It became routine however, for them to revisit the place and watch as days, weeks, then months, of training began to gradually pay off for the elite band, when they had learned the basics, they began to learn attacks, they learned to fire their bows in front, side, and rear...though this had a lot of undead horses getting shot in the head or in the ass at first. Neia was deeply surprised by all this, she'd seen horses used in combat, but they were used as rams or scouts, she had never seen anyone combine archery and horsemanship in this way, she learned circle maneuvers, feints and retreats, and how to control the group with flags. It was then combined with infantry support in the form of the lizardmen on the ground, and the different pieces of her forces began to function like fingers on the hand, joining together in a fist.

Briefly she imagined what it would have meant for her world if the Sorcerer King were truly as hostile as Remedios and those like her imagined. She imagined undead legions performing what at first seemed to her like impossible maneuvers, working together under single command, she imagined the proud paladins charging full tilt into a storm of arrows from light troops they couldn't catch, she imagined rivers being diverted to divide or wash away armies, she imagined all the things she had learned of, being turned against people who knew none of it. She shook her head...if they only knew how easily he could have destroyed everyone even without his magic, there would be no opposition, they would lie down in surrender.

When the seemingly endless training was done, at least the physical sort, Sebas escorted Neia to the library.

'You've done well. Very well.' He said.

'Thank you Sebas,' she smiled wryly, 'I must admit there were moments when I wondered if we would ever get it.'

'I think Cocytus would share that sentiment.' He said, flashing a rare smile on his stern face.

They chuckled at the thought, and Sebas continued, 'My lord has placed a great task on your shoulders you know.'

Neia gave him a solemn look, 'I do. To convey the teachings of the god of justice, the wisest and strongest of all beings...how can I even begin?' She asked in a voice that trembled with nerves that life or death battle did not shake.

'I cannot tell you, but I can say that since my lord does not make mistakes, he has chosen you wisely and therefore you ARE capable of this. Write to him during your journey, send your letters by hand back to the capitol, we will have someone there to receive them and reply.' He said.

'Isn't that...slow?' She asked.

'It is my lord's opinion that wisdom is most highly valued and most effective when answers demand time and consideration.' Sebas replied.

'As you say Sebas.' Neia said, just as they walked in to the library.

The goblin strategist was waiting with a broad smile on his green face as usual, 'How good to have you back Lady Neia...or should I say 'Pope Neia' now, I just heard of the new...title you will be taking on. Congratulations.'

'Thank you Sun, its a welcome thing and a step forward in the service of the god of justice.' She said enthusiastically. 'But, if I may, where is Zaryusu? He was in the training grounds, but why is he not here?'

'His phase of this is completed, as his people have no horses and they are not physically suited to riding, he has been granted a boon as his reward, and has been allowed to return to his village. He did however, send his fondest wishes for you, his classmate and comrad in arms, and he extends a permanent invitation to visit his village when time permits you to do so.'

Neia smiled broadly, 'That would give me great joy, I'm very glad for him, but, what was his boon?' She asked.

'He was permitted to take some drawings and notes from his time here, back to his people that he may improve their future with the knowledge he acquired, and his people were permitted to come to this library for learning annually.'

'I'll have to remember that boon and make it my own as well when the time comes.' Neia said with a grin. 'What do I study today?' She asked.

'You will study the ways of cavalry command, as well as the ways cavalry can be defeated. Atilla the Hun, Genghis Khan, the Parthians, Alexander the Great, and others of considerable note. I am quite sure you will be tired of horses by the time you are done, but when you are finished, you will have learned at the very least, the academics of warfare. If you are competent and able to apply it in practice, you will exceed all others in your nation.' The crackly voice of the strategist told her.

'Then I will work hard.' Neia said, and immediately sat and read alone, peppered by constant questions as she took notes and compared materials to one another. It was the single longest study session of her life, worse than preparing to become a paladin, even if she had magic items that eliminated fatigue, she felt the mental weariness, and was grateful when the last book closed in front of her.

She let her forehead fall forward and 'thud' on the closed book, prompting a laugh from the goblin strategist. 'You have earned your rest.' He said, but first, the Sorcerer King summons you.

Neia could not move fast enough, shouting a thank you behind her to the Goblin Strategist, she moved so quickly that when she charged full tilt into the throne room, it was all she could do as she charged past the waiting hundred of her people, to not fall as she struck a kneeling posture in front of him.

'You have done well Pope Neia, and all of you elites of Black Justice.' Ainz said in a lordly and commanding voice. 'But know that this is only the beginning, now you have knowledge, but knowledge unapplied is as useful as an arrow that does not leave its quiver, you must put your knowledge to work in your upcoming assignment, you and your hundred will make me proud of you I am sure, but do not let my confidence make you arrogant, because even a dirt crawling snake may poison and slay a mighty lion. Stay vigilant, work hard, and when you complete this mission, you will be rewarded for all that you have accomplished in my name.'

'All will be as his majesty wills.' Neia said. 'Long Live Ainz Ooal Gown!' Neia shouted, 'Long may he reign!' echoed from the hundred behind her.

It was a sentiment the guardians approved of, but two jealous pairs of feminine eyes were burning into Neia Baraja as she received the praise of their common Lord.

'For now you may go, enjoy the remaining time before your duty begins, weapons and armor will be delivered to you the day of your journey, and it is my hope that it will contribute to your safety and success.' Ainz said, and the gate opened behind them. They stood, and Neia bowed, and it was not until the last of her hundred had walked through the portal, that she straightened up, and walked through as well. The gate closed, and Ainz turned to his guardians.

'What do you think?' He asked.

'As expected of our Lord Ainz.' Said Shalltear, 'You knew we were watching them even without us saying so.'

Ainz coughed several times in his skeletal hand and said, 'Ah-of course I did Shalltear, that is why I didn't command it, I knew you would work my will without my order.'

Albedo and Shalltear sighed, rather lovestruck as he showed his brilliant mind to them. 'Now, I will have your opinions.

'Cocytus?' He asked.

'They have a warrior spirit and a drive to succeed, they are loyal and now they are well trained and will be well equiped, if they remain vigilant, they will do very well. I dare say that there is no single force in the Holy Kingdom that could stop them unless they had overwhelming numbers to throw away.'

'Mare?' Ainz asked.

'It was fu-funny to watch them at first, but then it st-stopped being funny when they g-got better at it all, I think they're st-strong for humans.' He said.

'Aura?' Ainz asked.

'They're still bugs, but at least they're smart enough to see the greatness of Lord Ainz, 'Aura said with her hand out and legs crossed as if she were explaining something obvious, 'still, they try hard, and they beat some beasts stronger than they are individually by working together, so I guess they're OK.' She said.

'Shalltear?' Ainz said.

'They would be better as food...but I admit...I did like the way that female one was so eager to die on what she thought were your orders, and I felt bad for her when she was frustrated by her failure to die...if people can see the obvious greatness of Ainz as we can, maybe they're not all completely worthless.' She said somewhat begrudgingly.

'Albedo?' Ainz asked. 'I find her eyes on you to be infuriating, but she knows her place as do they all,' she said, 'as long as she knows its better to die than displease you, they'll serve as useful pawns.'

'Demiurge?' Ainz said. 'They are going to reach the limits of human strength sooner than most, and that will make them a force in this world, especially if their methods spread, I admit, the method of combat that female specimen devised is not without its merits, she is clearly not as clever as yourself, or even Renner, but...she has considerable ability of her own, if she grows, she may be fit to become an official public representative of Nazarick.' Demiurge said, 'As expected of the leader of the 41 supreme beings, Ainz knew of her potential at the beginning and nurtured her through all the conflict and chaos, even with my poor inferior plans for the Holy Kingdom in his way.' He looked down, 'And to think I almost killed that one in a careless moment.' He shook his head, 'I swear my Lord I will strive to read your intent more closely in the future.'

Ainz covered his distress with a laugh, one that spread through all the guardians, and hoped even more than before, that Neia would be successful so he wouldn't be left with something else to cover up.

 **AN: I know, I know, someone is going to want longer chapters. :) Tough patooties, till I get a weekend, it'll have to be what it is, and what it is now, is nearing the end of our side story, 'Training in Time' the remainder will fill in the last few days before their departure and the court intrigues dealing with the escape of Remedios and Gustav's preparation to take over the expedition that Remedios had been tasked with. Then this story will end and I'll focus again on 'God Rising' and I will expand periodically on 'Memory & a Message' which will continue to give retrospective views of other important characters on the events they're learning of.**

 **God Rising, quite frankly is going to get a lot uglier when Neia begins her move into the Southern Kingdom, which you may recall was barely touched during the war with Jaldabaoth, and of course Remedios is still out there, and she has a number of people with her who think just like she does, and she's crossed lines previously unthinkable for her, and when you get 'her' perspective, as you will, you'll understand just why.**

 **Again kudos to those of you who got all the historical, literary, and linguistic references I threw in here, and to those of you who didn't...well, I hope you enjoyed it anyway, but trust me, the story is better when you catch these things. :) Thanks again for reading, and of course...**

 **REVIEWS WELCOME!**


	9. Twisting the Knife

'The undead labor is working remarkably well, isn't it?' Neia asked Gilcrest as they rode on horseback through the capitol's streets.

'Agreed.' He said, as his armor clinked with the slow up and down motion of the beast beneath him. 'With their help we'll have almost all the remainder of the city rebuilt before you ride out that gate.' He said with a broad and sincere smile, just as a skeleton carrying three times the load a human could, walked past them in the opposite direction towards a construction site.

'True,' Neia said, 'but that is only part of what I mean.' Her face took on a clever expression, which prompted a confused look on Gilcrest's face.

'Did you notice what that skeleton was wearing?' She asked.

'...Just what it died in.' He answered. 'Well that and marked with a yellow X over the front and back to identify it as a dead traitor...oooohhhhh.' He finished as the realization dawned.

'Exactly. All of these were part of the attack on our position, and not only did we crush them, killing most and leading to a fair number of the few survivors to be captured and hanged, but now they're serving us as free undead labor, subject to our orders thanks to the generosity of the god of justice. They serve as a constant reminder of our victory over our enemies, but also of what it means to cross Black Justice. Its a fitting end for the people who would betray their own, and it is a particularly horrific end for the fanatics who hate the undead, to know, not fear, but to know...beyond any question, that when they die at our hands, they will serve at our god's will.'

Gilcrest's expression turned dark, it was hard to argue the point, so he decided to change the subject. 'The people are getting quite accustomed to them.' He said.

'Another added bonus,' Neia's smile did not wane and her enthusiasm picked up, 'Familiarity with danger brings contempt for it, and as people grow more and more used to seeing undead servants in the streets laboring for their benefit, they will open themselves up to expanding that use dramatically. Of course...we couldn't possibly do this in the Southern Kingdom...not like this at least.' She said.

'Why not?' Gilcrest asked.

'Because the people of this region have had more exposure to nonhostile and tightly controlled undead, the undead saved untold thousands of them, remember when he left our city, the cheers for him were louder than for the coronation of our own King. We can test the limits of the applications of undead labor, starting with reconstruction and expanding into normal usage.'

'I see.' He said, 'So this is a template for the future.'

'Precisely.' Neia replied. 'The capitol is the fertile ground from which the seeds of change will sprout, the rest of the kingdom, North & South alike, can either ride the tide of change or be swept aside by it.'

He nodded in thought as he imagined the tireless undead being used to alleviate the weariness of the living. He imagined undead groomsmen, guards like those the Sorcerer King used to crush demihuman warriors, undead construction workers, undead miners, unead horses pulling carts...the living gaining a comfortable and contented life, and when it ended, serving the comfort of the next generation as an undead...it provoked...mixed feelings within him.

Neia learned the power of examples first hand from three sources. The first was from the Sorcerer King, his noble use of power, his argument against giving in to hostage demands, which he demonstrated his commitment to by putting down the hostages and saving countless lives, and his willingness to walk forward first into danger. The second example ironically enough, was Jaldabaoth, his viciousness and cruelty were truly terrible things, but they allowed him to gether an army that 'almost' brought the Roble Holy Kingdom to its knees. His use of hostages to accomplish this with reluctant allies, served as a counterpoint to the arguments of the Sorcerer King. Lastly, she learned from the example of Remedios Custodio...though in her mind little enough of that example was positive, but all of those played in to her request that the Sorcerer King turn the dead attackers into undead servants, it prompted a profoundly wicked smile from Demiurge when she'd made the request, and it was happily granted.

With less construction to do, Neia had time for something else, something far more important in her own mind. 'So, where are we going?' Gilcrest said as Neia slipped into silence.

'I am going to the castle to speak to the King. You are going to meet with Robel and go drinking.' She said.

'We're going to a tavern?' He asked.

'Yes, several of them, you're going to be drinking quite a bit, but I'm afraid I have to deprive you of some of the enjoyment of doing so.' Neia said and she reached into her pocket and pulled out two rings, simple gold bands but with small engravings on them, and handed both to Gilcrest. 'Put one on, give the other to Robel, these will...in the words of Lord Ainz, 'give you the liver of a hundred men.' I have no idea what that is supposed to mean, but he did clarify it has something to do with the fact that you're not going to actually be able to get drunk. Still, act as if you are.' She said.

'What do we do while there?' He asked as his curiosity grew.

'You're going to be a very generous patron, go to the bar, buy drinks for tables. Then you're going to let it slip that I've got an informant who is going to provide me with information on who helped Remedios get what she needed for her raid on our position.' She said.

'Do you have such an informant?' He asked.

'Hell no.' She replied. 'However you're going to let it out that I do, nothing obvious mind you, just that I've got a lead.'

'And what is Robel going to be doing?' He asked.

'He'll be watching the door to see if anyone leaves after you do.' She said with a grin.

'I'm the bait, aren't I?' He asked.

'Exactly. But don't worry, we'll do our best to protect you.' She said, reaching out and touching his shoulder. Her eyes met his and she said sincerely, 'You won't be alone out there. Robel knows who to contact already, everything will be fine.'

He nodded and swallowed hard, battle was easier to cope with than covert operations.

An hour later Gilcrest found himself shaking hands with Robel in a middle tier tavern, covertly passing him the ring before going to settle in at the bar. The place was nice, not fantastic, but well maintained, tables and chairs intact, clean enough, and a bearded bull of a man stood behind a bar lined with patrons, serving a sweet smelling brew, it was the sort of place that merchants, midrank adventurerers, and well paid staff could afford to eat and drink, its only drawback was the low lighting, reflected by the positioning of the tavern to the street, with only a few windows letting light come in. Robel looked around briefly to ensure there were no other evident means of entry or exist, and then he sat in a corner and watched. Gilcrest spent the next two hours buying drinks for strangers and talking about how well things were going for Black Justice, he praised the leadership of Neia Baraja, and he praised the Sorcerer King, and he praised the will of those who worked to complete the capitol reconstruction...in sum, he left no doubt as to whose man he was.

But as he drank, and appeared to be more and more intoxicated, he muttered to the bartender about how much the people behind the recent attack needed to pay for what they'd done.

'Wasn't Remedios sentenced to death, and weren't almost all those in her band killed off or captured?' The bartender asked.

'Shure!' Gilcrest said, putting a slur to his voce as he pounded on the bar, and then he leaned in and added, 'But thash jusht those...she Remedios had help, an Nei-Nei knows it!' he said with a dark conspiratorial giggle at the nickname. Privately...he thought it was a nice touch, though Neia would no doubt roll her eyes at the ridiculous nickname.

'How could she know that?' The bartender asked.

He hiccuped for effect and gave a ridiculous grin as he leaned over, 'Cuzsh sheesh got a source. See I sheen em comin from'r offish t'day, now sheesh goin t'the king, they'll let'r take'im in an then they'll know everthing cuz it'll be easy t'know who to snap up, they'llav all th'evidence they need.' He giggled maliciously, and then said...'ay I'm ungry, you serve food or what?' He asked.

'No...sorry, but there is a place down the street that does, 'The Red Bird' has damn good food. Tell the guy at the counter that Kalin sent you, he'll set you up right and give you a discount.' The bartender said.

'Aye thanks.' Gilcrest said, and half walked half staggered out the door.

Robel watched Gilcrest leave, and at first he saw nothing unusual, but after a time, he saw a man approach the bar, speak, and quickly leave. Robel quickly sent his message, and then left shortly after, taking a roundabout route to the Red Bird.

Gilcrest felt himself being followed after a few minutes, so he kept up his drunk act, stopping several times along the way and leaning up against the wall, or leaning over into a barrel to vomit as if he'd had far to much to drink, idly wondering where his promised backup was.

Skana was actually glad she wasn't especially pretty. Oh she wasn't ugly, another thing she was grateful for, but she was completely ordinary to look at in every way, a glance at her features in one moment, and her face would be forgotten the next, she was in a word...very generic, even her brown eyes were common looking. She wasn't especially tall or short, thin or fat, you could see her every day for a year and not be able to think of a single remarkable thing about her to describe her to people. As a younger maiden who developed no interest in boys, but found herself instead preferring the same sex as herself, this had begun as something she appreciated, not caring for the lusts of men, but it became a burden even with other women, who considered her wholly unremarkable.

However as she had come to find, what lay within her was something quite remarkable, she was uncommonly stoic about pain and she was skilled at blending in, and she excelled at learning and responding to change. All this was very useful in responding to the demihuman invasion of Jaldabaoth, she had avoided capture for an extended period of time, and in the end had only been captured because she had tried to help someone else and been taken with them. In the prison camp, she used her ability to blend in and remain unnoticed to avoid the hungry eyes of demihumans looking for those it would be amusing to torment, she simply looked to boring even when they noticed her. This meant that she had survived better than others and was still at least somewhat stronger than the other captives when the Sorcerer King had liberated her from her captivity. Soon after, she'd begun to follow Neia Baraja, and all this time later, she was now a skilled scout and trusted to lead the whole of them herself. Now she looked casually ahead, her eyes scanning the entire area, she exercised caution to not look directly at the target, she knew quite well that people could feel themselves being looked at, and she was to good at this to give herself away like an amateur, the same was true of the rest of her party. They were dressed in casual commoner clothing, but beneath the cloaks they wore for protection from the weather, there were several weapons of excellent quality, and the fabric of their clothing was woven with magic thread, it gave their clothing the strength of leather armor...nothing fantastic, but sufficient for throwing people off while offering at least some protection.

Her crew had been hand picked by Neia Baraja for this mission, and during their training as scouts, they had acquired skills that let them double as a kind of 'tactical hit squad' removing sentries and tracking the movements of individual targets, and in the course of that training they learned a number of unknown techniques for shadowing a target. Their method today was simple, each one of them shadowed the other, the lead member of the team would follow discreetly until or if suspicions were evident in the target, then the lead would turn into a shop or down a road, ending suspicion as the lead was no longer 'with' the target. The next person would then take up the task of observation and pursuit while the lead would move to a discreet intersection point where they could take up the tail position of the pursuit. If suspicion was evident of the next person in line as evidenced by behavior in the target, the new lead would repeat the action of the first person, and turn off elsewhere, leaving the next behind them to act in the role of chief tail. This would repeat itself until observation was ended.

Skana grinned as she executed her part, when the target seemed to pause and look around, she didn't hesitate, she simply turned in to a shop. The fellow she was watching was probably waiting for her to come out, so she didn't linger, she bought a small item and then came out of the shop, and turned a corner going down the street away from where the target stood. She could feel the suspicion melt away, it wasn't that far to the Red Bird, but the bustling and busy streets of the capitol made it difficult to move at a great pace in the evening, this worked to the advantage of Skana's band, and they used the cover of the crowd to hide themselves. Skana took advantage of her departure from the route to buy a new cloak of a different color, then went to an alley, discarded her old one, and put the new one on, and then she rushed to the nearest intersecting point.

The rest of her crew performed well in her absence, executing the departure maneuver so well that their target had begun to relax, driving them to conclude he had come to consider himself pointlessly paranoid, and this continued all the way to the time they arrived at the Red Bird. The Red Bird sat at an intersection, a large central fountain that was clearly of new construction, a point of pride for Black Justice and its labor force, provided clean water to the city, and between this and its centralized location, the area was a hubub of activity as taverns, restaurants, and commercial enterprises thrived anew. Confident voices hawked wares and trade was conducted on dozens of different goods. The observers watched as Gilcrest stopped in front of the restaurant, a relatively large building with one single swinging door, it had two floors, the second story of wood, the first of rounded stones held together with mortar, and the smell of fresh cooked meat wafted into the street for all to find.

When Skana rejoined her people, she quickly learned that their target had not gone in to the Red Bird after Gilcrest, but instead had gone into another two story building across the street. She acted quickly and sent a runner to Black Justice to request some heavy support, she was certain they'd found the primary base of operations.

She divided her group and had one half watch each building, and after a little while their efforts were rewarded. Because coming out of the Red Bird, was the same man that had been their target of pursuit. Her eyes narrowed, he had not gone IN to the Red Bird...so how had he come OUT of it. There was only one clear answer.

'The buildings are linked.' She said softly to herself.

'Shit.' She said under her breath as she realized that made this a little harder. She turned to one of her scouts, 'You, go in to the restaurant, see if Gilcrest is present.' The man nodded and walked casually in to the swaying door. Skana waited and waited, and after several minutes he walked out and back to where she sat.

'Well?' She asked.

He shook his head. 'I told them I was to meet a friend there, I described Gilcrest, but the attendant said he hadn't arrived, he offered me a table, but I said I would just go shopping and return later.'

'OK...' Skana said, 'New plan people. The Red Bird isn't just a convenient location, its part of the enemy operations. That gives us two targets, not just one. It also means they've already got Gilcrest, and they've probably moved him to the primary target building. We have a few hours, they won't move him till the Sun goes down, but they will also want to know who the leak is, and that means we can't take that whole time, you can put a lot of hurt on somebody in a little time if you're good at it.' She said, and the group of scouts nodded.

It was then that a seemingly ordinary patrol of Black Justice soldiers...her backup, appeared down the street marching in her direction, and Skana knew it was time to spring the trap. She quickly approached the lead element before they could enter the square where they'd be easily observable. It was the only real blind-spot.

'Listen and follow quickly,' she said, her soft voice carrying a note of iron, 'There are two target locations, not just one. The Red Bird is part of their operation, they have a tunnel leading from the main building across from it, to the restaurant itself, we don't know where the tunnel comes out in the buildings, but it must be from below somewhere. With the Red Bird, you have only a front and rear entrance, since it shares walls with other establishments, so send a half a dozen men to the back, and some more out front, the rest of you loudly storm the main target building. We know they have Gilcrest, but we don't know where he is in there. They may abandon him, they may not, if they fight, great, but their primary building is a corner location, so surround all three sides and storm the front, if they flee, they'll flee to the tunnel and come out into our waiting arms. If they don't, well take as many alive as you can, we need answers more than we need more skeletal laborers.'

She said, it was a lot to take in, but these were hardened veterans of the war with Jaldabaoth, they were not about to shrink from difficult tasks. The group was quickly split up, with a few minutes head start given to allow a detachment to go to the rear of the Red Bird. Skana parted from them and returned to her group, and she quickly gave instructions.

'They're about to move, so I want you all to take up perimeter positions just beyond this operation area, anyone slips past the more heavily armored soldiers, you take them down, captives are needed, but don't die over it.' She said, and whispered, 'Justice prevails,' to which they responded, 'by strength'. And they split up.

It was very loud. Skana didn't much care for loud, she preferred more stealthy operations, and had developed a taste for clean, quiet, unfair kills. She'd gotten some disagreement for this, but she eloquently argued that fair fights are for suckers, and death struggles had to be won because they were for a cause, not for the self...but even so...she couldn't deny that these loud, noisy operations were an effective attention getter. The Black Justice fighters stormed the ground level entrances of the unassuming building with battle cries and swords out, giving only scant notice to the people inside, who were not generally prepared for battle.

Skana couldn't see what was going on, but the crashing and breaking and screams told an eloquent story that the whole square could hear, it was so loud and distracting that as crowds paused to watch the fighting, nobody even noticed as people trying to exit the Red Bird found themselves held at the entrance by a series of very pointy halbards. The shouts of surprise caught a few eyes to turn back to the restaurant as the narrow door became a bottleneck, and the soldiers who had stormed to the front of it became a stopper. Nobody out front heard the shouts in the back as soldiers there pulled the same maneuver.

The prey had fled from one trap to be caught in another, and that left only one option, an option not many would have the courage to take...but as Skana watched the upper floors, a few DID have that will, and the fact that it was several, told her how important they were. Several figures leapt out the windows of the upper floors to land in the street, thinking they would be behind the soldiers and be able to escape...and that was when Skana's peope acted, executing their own martial arts on the ones who thought they escaped the net.

Skana found herself confronting one of them, a woman with fire red hair wearing a plain brown cloak and fairly nice tunic of green and black that molded closely to her body, she didn't waste any words when Skana put herself in the way of escape, instead she drew out a short blade, evidently realizing she would have to go through the plain looking female confronting her.

They struck out at the same time, Skana brought her blade down in an angular slash meant to connect at the shoulder, and the woman ducked low and thrust her blade at Skana's exposed side, however Skana used her momentum from the failed slash to carry her out of the way, spin, and struck out with a kick to the woman's knee, it wasn't painful, but striking the side of the knee through her off. Her target rolled with the blow and came up like a spring, leaping towards Skana intending to open her guts, Skana however, was a practitioner of the Black Justice fighting style, and used her free hand to grab the woman's wrist, and pull her off balance as she herself used that leverage to get out of the way. The woman staggered forward a few steps as her balance was lost, and Skana responded to the opportunity by grabbing her dagger with her left hand, pulling it out, and throwing it at the woman's head, it struck her pommel first, and the woman fell forward, unconscious on the cobblestone steps.

The rest of the fighting had started to die down, a few clashes rang out as she secured her captive, but those too faded relatively quickly. Those who had made the rather daring leap to escape from the second story rooms, found that they'd just lept from the fire into the cook pot, and the elite scouts of Skana were prepared to bring them down. There were twenty-three people in the primary building, eight of whom had died fighting and had evidently been security for the location based on their arms and equipment.

Of the fifteen survivors in the main building nine had been dispatched inside, though none without resistence and few without some form of injury, despite clearly not being what one would call 'warriors'. The six remainder who had leapt from the second floor, had all put up some firm resistance, however they were outnumbered by the elite scouts, and extra soldiers had been able to participate to bring down those who resisted most firmly.

In the Red Bird restaurant, things were a different story. Several people from the main building had tried to use the restaurant to escape, bursting in among surprised diners, panicked people drew swords or knives, uncertain of who was friend or foe, or simply sprinted for the front or rear entrance...only to find the tips of very sharp halberds at their throats. When the main building was secured and the captives firmly bound, soldiers went to the restaurant through the secret path, and the serving staff and other employees, who now recognized the jig was up, tried to flee to the upstairs to make their own dramatic leaps...only to find themselves landing with soldiers waiting to arrest them.

As Skana noted when she took charge and entered the restaurant, the greatest problem was what to do with the diners. Chaos had ensued when people had tried to escape through it, plates had toppled, outraged patrons had attempted to respond only to have swords drawn on them, the shouting and screaming of people ranging from panic to outrage were all blending together, though the soldiers exercised little concern over that except for watchfulness as they secured the serving staff.

Skana rolled her eyes and climbed on top of the bar, quickly making a decision that she was sure was the right one, and the most troublesome one at the same time.

'Citizens of the Holy Kingdom, your attention please!' she shouted, drawing her sword and in one swift motion, throwing it into the opposite wall with a very loud THUNK noise. It vibrated audibly as noise began to die down.

'An emergency of the most dire sort has happened here, and your patience and attention is required in order for us to sort the matter out. Almost all of you I am sure, have come to this place simply because the food is good and were just hoping to enjoy a meal. However you have been caught up in the games of nefarious persons hoping to harm your neighbors, and it may be that some of those nefarious people are trying to use the rest of you as a means to conceal themselves and blend in. All of you will have to come with us while we sort out who is an innocent patron, and who is a suspicious and nefarious person out to hurt the people of this great Kingdom. All innocent parties will be compensated reasonably for their time, whether it be through lost wages or appropriate rations. Understand this is not an option, I am informing, I am not asking.'

Her voice was iron as she jumped down and went to the wall and took her sword out with a quick wrenching motion. 'Stand up and line up against the wall.' She said, and gradually reluctant patrons followed her guidance.

As the last were secured, Skana was approached by Robel.

'Did you find him?' He asked, Skana didn't need to ask who Robel was talking about, Gilcrest...she was just about to tell him no when a soldier came up and said, 'Ma'am, we found a man tied up and unconscious in a room that had been prepared just off the tunnel.'

'So he's alive then.' Skana said, relief in her voice, 'Good. Robel, why don't you go see to him. We'll finish up here.'

'I will, thank you.' Robel replied and quickly departed.

After considerable time bringing everybody back to the Black Justice headquarters area, Skana divided up the interrogation teams, and separated the captives to keep them from communicating with one another.

She stood in front of the door of the nearest building, a simple structure of stone, but enchanted against attempts at using magic or martial arts to break it down, thinking about it, she considered it 'probably' couldn't hold an adamantite adventurer...but it should be good enough for their purposes now. The door was double layered, on the outside, iron bars that had been added on, and behind that a heavy wooden door, offering a double layer of protection, it was awkward to open, with the bars opening out, and the wooden door opening in, but then, that wasn't a show stopper, so they'd lived with the solution to their basic security needs without resorting to using the castle dungeon.

She straightened her tunic with a slight tug and took a deep breath as she got out of the mindset of physical combat, and into the mindset of mental combat.

Then she opened the door and walked in. She recognized the woman immediately, the flaming red hair was now much messier, and her cloak was gone, but she wore a foul expression on her face as she stood chained against the wall, she tried to loose herself, pulling against her bonds, only for them to snap taut as Skana locked the doors behind her. There was a table between them, simple rough wood and two chairs of equally crude construction.

Skana didn't say anything, she just approached the table and sat down.

'It won't do any good you know.' She said to the chained up red head.

'It doesn't hurt to try either.' The woman spat back.

'You sure about that?' Skana said, 'It could be made to hurt if necessary.'

The woman went quiet, and then she stopped pulling on her chains and relaxed.

'Smart.' Skana said. 'I don't like pointless things, and struggling against those would definitely be pointless, its much easier for you and I both if you simply cooperate.'

'I won't tell you anything.' The red headed woman said.

'You don't need to say much anyway,' Skana said, 'After all, we already caught you, think about what that means just by itself.'

There was silence in the room.

'Right.' Skana said, 'We had enough soldiers to handle you, we captured the entire 'staff' at the Red Bird, and we caught everybody who took that noteworthy window leap, pretty impressive resolve, I'll grant you all that. The people who died were all obviously there only to serve as a defense team, but even the weaker people tried to resist. For what its worth, you did as well as could be expected, we were just to well prepared for anything you might have done.'

The woman stayed quiet and starred daggers at Skana.

'Its OK, you don't have to talk, just listen.' Skana said with a smile, 'The fact that you were allowed to be captured means only one of two things, either your entire operation was a sham and you were supposed to get caught, or your people expected you to kill yourselves rather than be captured. Either way, they obviously don't give a rat's dung about your lives being thrown away. Now that you have been captured, there are of course, only two possible options. Either they leave you here hoping none of you give up any information, which is unlikely unless you have nothing of value to say...or they have you all assassinated or rescued. Tell me the few tidbits of information that I want to know...and I will stake my life on your continued survival. Neia is a hard woman, but she respects her followers conviction and if I tell her I gave my word, she'll accept it. However this only applies to those who cooperate, those who don't, I can personally assure you will just end up as more skeleton laborers working to better this city.' The woman's eyes went wide with shock at the promise and the threat...there was a fire in her eyes that matched her hair, and then she slumped as if the fight had gone out of her.

'What do you want to know?' She asked.

'Lets start with your name.' Skana said, 'I'd rather not just have to keep referring to you as the red headed prisoner.'

'Torli.' She said.

'Alright Torli, we're getting somewhere.' Skana said. 'Which nation sent you to us?'

'The Re-Estize Kingdom' She said.

Skana hid her surprise and leaned back in her chair.

'And your mission?' She asked.

'Varies. Mainly observation, but we also handle providing support to potentially friendly parties.' Torli said.

'Kind of seems like you overreached with supporting Remedios, doesn't it?' Skana said.

'What do you mean?' Torli asked with doubt in her voice.

'Remedios was widely known to be brave, powerful, filled with conviction, and a complete idiot. There was no way she managed to get that many people together so quickly, I heard she said in the court of the King it would take her a month to three months to get her people ready for an expedition to hunt down demihuman stragglers and survivors. Not unreasonable given the logistical need for supplies, but it takes competence to organize a raid like that so quickly, it might have been believable if it had just been members of the Paladin Order, but there were known criminals in their number, and we know some of the lords contributed soldiers as well, Remedios couldn't have coordinated that on her own, that meant she had outside help. It tipped us off that she had outside assistance.'

Skana chuckled, 'If you hadn't been so dead set on killing us all, quite frankly you could have remained hidden for years. Once we knew there was outside support, we knew there were outside agents here, and finding you was as simple as sending different teams to different taverns and seeing who reacted by tracking the agent.'

Torli looked surprised. 'You're...very good at this.'

'I was taught by the best.' She said simply. 'So, you're in charge of everything?'

'Yes.' Torli said with a small nod.

A knock on the door interrupted them.

'Excuse me.' Skana said politely, and went to unlock the door. A thickly muscled man stood outside it, and Skana stepped outside, leaving Torli alone.

'What do you have to report?' Skana asked.

'All the interrogators are reporting the same thing.' He said. 'All the prisoners identify themselves as the citizens of Re-Estize Kingdom, here to observe and run operations leading to a favorable outcome for their national interest.'

'I see.' Skana said. 'Well since they're cooperating so much, I'd say it is time to allow them some small reward. Take them out to the baths, keep the chains on, but allow them to be bathed and fed by members of their own sex, do not allow them to be abused in any way.'

The soldier nodded politely and departed, and Skana returned to Torli.

'Apologies for keeping you waiting.' She said to the chained woman, who did not try to leap at her again. 'I had to confer with my colleague, the rest of your team is cooperating, and we appreciate that. You're going to be rewarded, given food, and time at the baths, your chains will stay on of course, but to protect your dignity you will be taken care of by members of your own sex, none of your women will be mistreated, I swear it, afterwards you'll return here and we can continue our discussion.' Skana said kindly.

Torli looked surprised. 'Th-thank you.' She said in reply, and a few minutes later several females came in, secured Torli's bonds at wrists and ankles, and lead her out, she had enough slack to feed herself, but could take only small steps and couldn't hope to strike any blows or resist in any significant way.

While she was out, Skana turned things over in her mind, and eventually she reached a decision. She went out and purchased a large thick white cloth, several knives, and a set of paints, and she went to work drawing out the designs she had in her mind, and then she secured it to a piece of thick wood and hung it on the wall in Torli's cell, she then moved the table against the wall farther away from the door, and took a seat, she propped her feet up on the table and looked at her handwork on the wall opposite herself, thinking it would do nicely.

When a much cleaner and less sweaty Torli was returned to her cell in the care of her female guards, Skana through a knife at her work, and it sank into the thick wood.

Torli saw the gesture and paused in a moment's confusion before it was repeated, as Skana took another knife and threw it towards the opposite wall. Skana watched Torli's eyes when the confusion hit, and she continued to watch as Torli's gaze followed the motion of Skana's hands, saw the knife fly, and sank through the cloth to the wood beneath with a satisfying thunk. On the wall, the first dagger stuck out of the decently drawn face of Surshana, the second dagger had sunk into the face of Alah Alaf.

Skana watched Torli's face change to shock as she saw the two rows of the six gods faces, set next to a drawing of the Slane Theocracy's flag, and she drew another dagger, and threw it as she had the others, this one hit the center of the Slane Theocracy's symbol, and she asked Torli, 'Would you like to play? I'll bet you can't hit the Slane Theocracy's emblem dead center.' Skana's question was asked in a casual tone, but the response she received was very much the opposite.

Torli screamed in rage and tried to leap away from her handlers, regardless of the chains, and get herself at the blasphemous Skana.'

Skana didn't even startle, she stood up casually, flung another dagger and hit another of the six gods faces, and then said simply, 'Put her down. I got what I needed.'

Torli was in such a state of rage, that she barely felt the sword pass through her throat from behind her, and when she noticed the feeling, her eyes went down to the blade protruding from her throat as if she couldn't understand where it had come from. She fell to her knees as her handlers let her go, and when the sword was removed, she fell over the rest of the way, as she choked on her blood, she managed to look over to the wall, at the white fabric containing the emblems of all that she held faith in, she tried to utter a prayer that the god's receive her spirit, but it came out as a mere gurgling sound, that was itself interrupted by a thunk as another dagger sank into the face of another of her gods. Then she knew no more.

'Well, that was informative.' Skana said. 'Inform Gilcrest and Robel that they need to report this to Neia immediately, waiting to be heard at the castle can take quite some time, but nonetheless, do not waste a moment, they need to know that the Theocracy is...or was...active in this city.'

There was not a moment's time wasted in carrying out that order, and Skana looked down at the dead red headed woman, and then crouched over her, she reached down and grabbed her by the hair close to the scalp, turning her lifeless face upwards so that their eyes met. 'I wonder if Torli was even your real name?' She said quietly. 'I guess that doesn't matter now. All that matters to you anymore is how much your skeleton can do to improve our nation.' Skana unceremoniously released her grip, letting the head fall back down, creating a small splash of blood as she did so, some got on her boots as a result, but that was the very least of her concerns.

 **AN: Well here you go folks, this probably answers a few of your questions, and I hope you liked the introduction of 'Skana' to all this. She's actually why I haven't been updating as much to the 'God Rising' story, I wanted to get her introduction done here rather than there, and it took awhile before I could find a reasonable place to add her, and she needed to be added. Neia is a fantastic character, but its just not realistic for her to have the only functioning brain and to do literally everything moving the story forward.**

 **I also hoped you like the introduction to the reactionary forces of the Slane Theocracy. One of the main gripes I have with a lot of fiction, is that villains and neutral characters are often shown only passively receiving the actions of the protagonists, and do not often take initiative themselves, and I thought this point would be an excellent time for insertion, of course you'll find out more about how they came in to the city and a little more about who they have ties to, but THIS story at least, is almost completed, Neia is only days away from her departure, and though she'll have had a few weeks of having a free hand in God Rising, she's going to start seeing responses to her actions by the various enemies her beliefs have made for her. And yes, God Rising will be resuming updates soon, its just that this story is so close to completion I want to finish it off first. I don't mind writing two stories at once (obviously) but when one of them is close to completion, I'd rather finish it off so I can open up the next tandem tale when that time comes to branch off from the main one again.**

 **As always: REVIEWS WELCOME! I love both praise and constructive criticism, and frankly this was a tough chapter to get right, took me days to get it to where I wanted it to be, and I still feel like something is off, like I should have made it longer instead of shifting the next set of events to the next chapter. But oh well.**

 **One final note...  
Obviously I can't make money off of the property of someone else, even if I could get away with it, that wouldn't be ethical, but if you enjoy my work and you want to show your appreciation, you can donate a dollar or so to my favorite charity: **


	10. Final Days

'What do we do with the rest of them?' One of the escorts asked Skana.

'Well we know they're from the Slane Theocracy now...in hindsight maybe I shouldn't have killed her, but oh well, I'm confident she wasn't actually in charge either, she might have had some rank, but if she were really in charge, she would have been personally defended.' Skana scratched her head as she thought, her plain brown hair was pragmatically short, but it still felt good to scratch when she thought.

'We may need to kill the rest of them. I'll leave that to Lady Baraja, but I don't think she wants a war with the Slane Theocracy before we've even rebuilt our own country.' Skana said thoughtfully.

'King Caspond.' A guard said.

'I'm sorry?' Skana asked curiously.

'King Caspond,' the guard reiterated, 'I believe you meant that those decisions were for the King to make.'

Skana blinked several times as she realized what she'd said. 'Oh...yes, please excuse my ill controlled tongue.'

'Think nothing of it.' The guard said, 'I don't mind the thought, but that isn't a slip of the tongue that should be repeated often. Kings take a dim view of that thing I would imagine.' He said sardonically.

Skana laughed at the way he said it, 'Yes...I'd imagine so.' She replied. 'I'm sorry, I don't think I know your name.'

'Don't apologize, I know you don't know it, because until now we've never spoken.' He said with a grin, 'I'm Balur, and I only joined our organization a few months ago.'

Skana looked him over, he was a larger man, she reminded him vaguely of an oversized teddy bear, and he had unusually sparkling eyes for a man who swung sharp pointy objects as a profession.

'Nice to meet you Balur, and...thanks in advance for not mentioning my little indiscretion.' She leaned in and whispered, sticking out her hand, which he took and shook firmly.

'My pleasure Skana.' He said. 'Now...about the rest of these prisoners?' He asked.

'Oh yes,' she said, scratching her head again, 'I think I'd like to speak to one or two, but after that we'll let Lady Neia refer the matter up to the King. I anticipate an increase in our skeletal workforce, but until a decision is firmly made, make sure they're well fed and secured and are unharmed, and also make sure that all the documents we've gathered are secured somewhere until they can be delivered to the King.'

'As you say.' Balur replied, and the guards went back to their business.

Skana went to the next small building, and walked in. A man leaned against the wall, he was slender, even wirey, and had short black hair and a slightly crooked nose that had obviously been broken at some point in his life, his shirt was gone, and only his pants remained.

'Let me guess,' Skana said as she moved to the table and sat down facing him. 'Your shirt was torn up during the fighting before you were knocked unconscious.'

His glare said enough.

'Thought so.' She said. 'The Slane Theocracy really does train its operatives to be stubborn and tough.'

He looked at her with surprise.

'I had an interesting conversation with Torli next door.' Skana clarified. Shock was written all over his face.

'She had a lot to say, more than I anticipated really. But I guess I shouldn't be surprised, after all, how do you think we found your hide out?'

She saw understanding dawn on his silent face.

'Well that, and the Red Bird's connection.' She said, 'Really helped us out to know there was a secret entrance, hell if that place had been found blind, your meat shields in there could have held off an attack while the rest of you simply walked out the back of the restaurant. I don't think...personally, that she was rewarded enough for all that she's done. I'll be asking Lady Neia to offer more to her after this is all over.' Skana smiled as she finished her sentence, and then leaned back in her chair, propping her feet up on the table, the overwhelming arrogant certainty she felt was washing off of her like dirt from her body when she jumped in a stream.

It wasn't lost on her crooked nosed captive.

'If it matters to you,' Skana said, 'Torli did ask that your lives be spared.'

He remained silent, but he was clearly paying attention.

'Do you know why Torli betrayed you? Sold you out to us, gave us your hide out, gave us your escape route, and made sure that we knew to have a patrol there when you were most vulnerable and all together?' Skana said, spinning a detailed lie that answered unasked questions in her prisoners mind...and gave him a different question on top of that, which she proceeded to answer when he shook his head.

'Because she knew your whole mission was fucked from the start. Well, that's how Torli put it. Oh sure it was fine when you were just there to observe, report, and gather data. But when your boss pushed for more active actions, she knew you were all screwed. The Sorcerer King is incredibly popular here, you don't think he has eyes in this city, you don't think his intelligence apparatus is good enough to catch overt operations and ensure it is screwed. If you want the truth, even if Torli hadn't told us hours in advance that you were impromptu backing Remedios's plans, the Sorcerer King's apparatus is even better than ours, and the plan was doomed from the start. You only lasted this long because we wanted that operation to go down so we could get rid of most of our enemies in one shot.'

She saw the understanding continue to grow as more and more was filled in.

'Torli saved your lives.' Skana said, 'Even if she did disobey the commands of the Slane Theocracy. But one thing she denied, was having anything to do with Remedios's escape. She gave up your role behind the attack on our headquarters...but...why deny that?'

A gutteral howl came out of the man's mouth as he rolled his head in anger, realizing that Skana had everything. 'Because we didn't actually do that.' He said, 'I suppose there is no point in saying nothing about that, now that she's already told you. I knew that stupid operation was fucked. Remedios was and is a moron, she's like an arrow, good if unleashed on target, but anything it does on its own is worthless. I didn't think Torli would take it so hard though that she'd betray her orders to save our lives...but still, you're right, we were behind that operation just like she said, but we weren't behind Remedios's rescue. I don't know who did that one, but it wasn't us.'

'I see.' Skana said.

'Mind telling me just 'why' you took that risk? Torli described it as if it were just an opportunistic thing, you had an outraged Paladin and a group of people in reach that she'd be happy to kill, and you took a chance. But I find that hard to believe.'

He clenched his fists and rattled his chains as he shook them in frustration.

'You're loyal to the undead, of course we wanted you all dead, and we took the chance we saw presented with that stupid paladin...stupid operation though it was, it had to be done, we can't let you grow your influence and drive people from the gods. You have to be put down or who knows how close your nation will grow to the Sorcerous Kingdom!' He said and spat at the floor for emphasis, and he turned his eyes on Skana, and she could feel the hate coming off of him as they bored into her, 'Mark my words, that undead will betray you, he'll cast you down and use you like toys and make you suffer if he's not stopped, if you put him into your hands, we'll grow weaker and weaker until we can't stop him.'

She felt the hate was less directed at her, and more directed at the undead. It was only by the greatest of control that Skana kept her anger in check, and asked, 'So you planned to stop the undead by taking the lives of people?'

He went sullenly quiet.

'How many of us would you kill to keep us from controlling our own destiny?' She asked the sullen and furious prisoner.

'Fucking all of you.' He said.

'You'll never get the chance.' She replied as she stood up, walked out, and locked him in the room by himself.

'That was a most productive interrogation.' Skana said softly to herself, just as someone approached with a series of documents.

'Are those the interrogation reports?' Skana asked, and the courier quickly nodded in the affirmative.

'Very good.' She took them in hand and began to flip through them, one prisoner had managed to take his own life by bashing their skull against the wall when he was left alone, but others had yielded some significant information on what nobles had helped, and some had given up information on some criminal elements that had been responsible, all had denied involvement in Remedios's escape, and several contacts were listed.

Skana was most troubled though, by the uniform fanaticism they displayed, none of them seemed even slightly bothered by the idea of exterminating even her entire nation if that is what it took to keep the nation from forming stronger ties with Ainz Ooal Gown. That was the thought that bothered her most, as she went off to find something to eat.

In the castle court room of King Caspond...

Neia listened to the report delivered by Robel & Gilcrest on everything that had transpired, and when the report came that it was the Slane Theocracy behind it, she turned pale. An internal faction was one thing...a rebellious element even...but a foreign government?

Her pale skin had not recovered its color when the King called upon her to come forward.

'Lady Neia,' King Caspond said, 'I believe you had a matter to present to me today?'

Neia approached and knelt before the throne, 'I do majesty...yet I now know more than I did, thanks to the efforts of my heroic people, but so much more, that I fear to surrender that knowledge here.'

The King's expression turned dark. 'You wish to conceal things from me?'

'Never, majesty.' Neia said, 'I wish only to do so privately, with those you trust most, or better, none at all.'

Caspond's expression held firm, and silence had fallen among the court.

'Very well.' He said, 'We will gather in the council room immediately, but this had better be worth it.'

The council was summoned, as the King got up and walked to a nearby private chamber, and soon Neia found herself in a room with Count Handor, Commander Gustav, and a small collection of other nobles, military, and priestly figures which made up the private council of the King.

'Neia Baraja, state your peace.' The King said as everybody took their seats.

Neia's voice was firm and filled with darkness as she spoke. 'The Slane Theocracy was behind the attack on the Black Justice quarter of the city.'

Silence was thick in the room as Neia continued. 'They had an operation center in the city, made up of a single building in one of the squares, and augmented by a secret path underground between it and a restaurant called 'The Red Bird'. The entire staff of the restaurant was made up of operatives, other operatives are scattered about at various public establishments like taverns, where the proprietors would feed information back to the headquarters building to be compiled.' She said.

She looked them over, some of them were striving to conceal their nervousness, others looked dumbfounded.

'All of the documents of their headquarters were seized in a raid launched by my people early today, and we're currently sorting through documents and will have them delivered here soon. I trust I don't need to explain the problem here?' Neia said sharply.

King Caspond nodded slowly and his expression went from impatient, to very grave.

Gustav almost collapsed, his eyes and mouth were wide open in horror.

'This is tantamount to war on our country.' Count Handor said, in a soft voice the likes of which Neia had never heard him use.

'It is.' Gustav repeated. 'I...I just can't believe it.'

'The question is...do we say anything at all?' Neia asked.

'What do you mean?' The King asked.

'Well majesty, there aren't many operatives involved, if we simply kill them all we can plant a few rumors that it was identified as a criminal headquarters that was taken down in a raid and not make any further issue of it. The Slane Theocracy then won't have to officially respond or deny anything publically, and privately they'll know that fucking with our national security is a bad idea.' Neia said bluntly.

'Or...' Count Handor said, 'They'll decide the lack of public response means we're to weak to respond and they'll just do something else.'

Neia hated that he wasn't wrong.

'We are to weak to respond.' Gustav said flatly.

'We've only finally almost rebuilt the capitol, much of our population is dead, we would be starving if it were not for the food aid of the Sorcerer Kingdom, vast amounts of treasure were taken and hidden by Jaldabaoth and his minions and nobody knows where it went, and we still haven't rebuilt much of the North. The only intact place is the South, and the South cannot hope to defeat the Slane Theocracy. on its own.'

'You doubt us?' A richly dressed nobleman said, 'We came to fight Jaldabaoth after all, and we are also supplying aid to our nation's reconstruction.'

'No. Viscount Takran.' Gustav shook his head as he looked to the southern noble who had spoken. 'The help of the south has been invaluable, and I do not doubt your courage in battle, but in terms of military strength our entire nation has been weakened. Your navy was eroded badly by Jaldabaoth, and the North does not have the military power to fight another nation on land, if we fight a war with the Theocracy, victory would be as bad as defeat for our people.'

The Viscount tried to look hard and sure, but in the end his face collapsed in a sigh, 'As expected of Commander Gustav, you are right. If the Theocracy escalated things, much would be lost even if we won.'

'We could simply send the Slane Theocracy the heads of their operatives and say nothing more.' A young nobleman said. 'Would that not be message enough?'

'It may be.' Neia said, 'However it might to provocative. Perhaps we should approach them through an intermediary, someone they'll listen to.'

'Such as the Re-Estize Kingdom.' King Caspond said.

The table looked at him in surprise, including Neia, it was the first time she'd heard him say something that spoke of noble foresight.

'Yes.' Neia said, 'I suggest that we follow the King's suggestion, we approach them through the Re-Estize Kingdom, and inform them that their operation has been shut down. While I don't suggest we overly threaten them, I do suggest that the King promise not to inform the Sorcerer King that they had sought the deaths of hundreds of the people he took the time to save...if...they provide some appropriate compensation to the Kingdom.' Neia improvised some additional benefits as she spoke, and subtly attributed them to the King would make it more likely to be accepted by both the council and himself.

There were no objections in the room, and the King silently thought at the table for a moment, and then nodded. 'Agreed. We'll further go an extra step and offer to return the survivors for a set price per person, refusal will end in their demise or their sale to the Sorcerer King if he wants them.'

It was an astute move on the King's part, she had to admit, the Theocracy would not want their operatives in the hands of the undead monarch, of that much Neia was certain.

'Majesty...' Commander Gustav began, 'We must consider the possibility that they will respond to this with military force, what is our plan if they choose to do so? While we have substantial troops in the South, I doubt very much the North can hold out for long, and the South remains vulnerable since so many of their resources came from here.'

The Viscount turned his gaze to Gustav as he realized the significance of Gustav's words, he mentally ran through the number of mines and farms...the South had more large cities and a vibrant coast, but it was mineral poor compared to the North, and it imported much of both mineral wealth and food to allow it to focus on producing finished goods, the permanent loss of the north was unacceptable.

King Caspond said it flatly and most unhappily, 'We will have to appeal to our neighbor, the Sorcerer King, for help again.'

There was a collective swallow in the council.

'Would he provide it?' Gustav asked doubtfully.

'He invested much in rebuilding us.' King Caspond said. 'It seems unlikely he'd let that investment go to waste by allowing us to be not only overthrown and conquered, but also become the province of a power that is overtly hostile to him in particular.'

There were accepting nods around the table as people considered that their King's reasoning was sound. Neia in particular found that logic compelling, and she felt excited about the idea that she might get to see his heroism again...though as she considered the matter...she did not like the idea of watching him kill humans, even if it was necessary.

'Lady Neia,' the King said, 'Have all documents delivered to the castle, my operatives will go over them in detail and we will see to the arrest of those responsible for collaborating with the Slane theocracy ourselves.'

'It will be as you say Majesty.' Neia replied.

'Dismissed.' The King said, and as they walked out, Gustav approached Neia. 'Walk with me a little, will you?' He asked. She responded by falling into step beside him, and Gustav said, 'I'll be blunt, while I'm shocked that Remedios got caught up in all this, I don't believe she was intending to betray the nation, and I doubt she knew that she was serving the interests of the Slane Theocracy.'

Neia shrugged, 'Does it matter? Whether she knew it was another country or thought it was some internal faction, she still set out to kill me and everybody who has adopted my thinking. Even if I believe you to be right, the only charge that changes is that she wouldn't be charged with conspiring with a foreign power. She still committed treason, among numerous other crimes.'

Gustav's shoulders drooped, 'I suppose you're right, its just...this is all so much to cope with. I served with Remedios for many years, I knew how she was, I just never imagined that would lead to who she is.'

'I know what you mean. She damned herself by inches, through one choice after another that she never considered looking back on, and now here she is, treasonous, murderous, and an escapee on the run...its not how I expected her to be living after the war.' Neia replied.

'Well, thank you Lady Baraja.' He said and clapped her on the shoulder, 'Well done today. Who knows what would have happened if your people hadn't done their work.' He said, and turned off down the hallway.

She left the royal court after that, feeling the confused and suspicious gazes of the members of the nobility behind her, it was never a comfortable thing to do, but she was never accosted on her way out.

When she returned to the area where the prisoners were being held, she gave instructions that all documents should be provided to the King immediately, but as he had given no instructions about the captives...they remained where they were, and Neia went to her office and begin sorting through the reports from the raid, Skana had executed it well and with minimal harm to anyone, the last of the nonparticipating parties who had been at the restaurant were recently sent back home with some compensation for lost time, and while complaints were not absent, people were more understanding when they learned they'd just been caught up in the pursuit of those responsible for the raid on the Black Justice quarter.

With only days to go before her trip, Neia had little time left to her, but she chose not to skip her evening speech.

'Strength is the means by which all justice flows, imagine if all criminals, murderers, rapists, and thieves, were stronger than all those who would stop them, could justice ever exist? NO! Because those who would be predators, can be stopped by stronger men than they, they must hide themselves, or be brought to the headsman's ax! So it is not that might makes right, but only by might may right be done! When those who rule are unjust, is right that the just turn on them, and if you lack the strength to triumph over the unjust, seek strength to make it so you can! What can one bully do against one hundred who will not let him bully others? We who survived the terror of Jaldabaoth should know this best of all, for it was one entity over all others who answered the prayer that we be saved, the Sorcerer King! He came with his strength, seeking greater strength to better protect his people, he took away the orcs who refused to harm our people, and who had been tormented for their trouble, he slew the demihumans that wore the skulls of our children as decorations for their clothing, he brought down Jaldabaoth, allowing our army to finally end the scourge that plagued us! He took the hills where the demihumans sprang from, so that they would never come against us again. This makes him the one true god, and the definition of justice!'

Her voice range out over the crowd, and not a one did not shiver with enthusiasm at her words.

Her voice went lower after the climax, and she walked closer to the edge of the stage, 'Yet what are we? Do we not ALL seek justice, do we not share that with he who is our god? Do we not come in common mind, hoping to be well treated by others, that we may live peaceful lives of prosperity and hope? Is that spirit of that god not then within us all? We are ALL agents of justice if we choose to be, the only question is whether or not we have the courage to take up that mantle, and the will to pursue the strength to make that justice manifest in the world, so that WE WILL NOT BE BEATEN AGAIN!' Her voice rose to a sudden fever pitch in her final five words, and it electrified the crowd, resulting in cheers ringing out over the masses.

When her sermon ended, she walked down from the stage, and Sebas fell into step behind her as was his habit, and she said nothing to him, for now was her time among the crowd, shaking hands and talking to people individually, answering questions and praising people for their will to survive and hearing out individuals with problems.

Along the way she encountered Skana, who clapped her on the shoulder and said, 'Well done as always Lady Neia, you really know how to move people.'

'Thank you Skana.' Neia said with a grin, 'It helps when every word is true.' She replied further, and moved on to others as the crowd dispersed, until finally she made her way to the edge, and went back to her office/residence.

'Well Sebas, it looks like our time together is coming to an end.' Neia said as she reached her door.

'Yes it does, and I have enjoyed seeing how you have been handling the challenges you are presented. Lord Ainz was right, you are an...interesting human.' Sebas said in his customary polite and even tone.

Neia blushed bright red at the implied praise. 'Th-thank you. The Sorcerer King is incomparably kind.' She said and shut the door behind her and went to her rest.

The next two days were a heady affair, the merchant caravan arrived at the city and began to gather supplies to replenish itself before the next leg of their journey, where Neia and her band would accompany them, the documents supplied to the King resulted in a treasure trove of data and several minor nobles and citizens were arrested and hanged, but a break in at the facility where the documents were stored had evidently taken place and several materials were stolen, and the theft was not discovered until after the hangings of the more minor figures, making questioning them impossible. Neia had managed to attend the execution of the priest who had tried to kill you, as a kind of token apology, the King sped up the execution by a day, allowing her a front row seat to watch him die, so she could go in the morning without a living enemy behind her. She thought she'd enjoy some satisfaction, but she knew in her heart she hadn't, she didn't feel the hatred she thought she would, she felt...sadness well up in her heart, not peace, he was just another lost soul who died fighting for the wrong side.

When it was over, she approached the executioner and held out a few coins. 'This is for his body.' She said. 'Have him buried in accordance with his beliefs, he's been punished enough.'

The man's expression was one of shock, and without saying anything, she turned around, Neia Baraja walked home alone.

 **AN: Well this is...mostly it. The next chapter will be vignettes of events from the perspectives of other characters taken throughout all ten chapters, then I'll be resuming 'God Rising' and as that progresses, you'll also see more chapters appear for 'Memory & a Message'.**

 **As 'God Rising' grows, expect one or two branch stories to grow up along the way, along with new characters and locations. I will do my damnedest to stay as close to the original characters as I can, but characters have to somewhat 'change' as they are confronted with new information, new challenges, tragedy and hope, and the stuff of life that changes all of us as we grow, and I will try to write their personal arcs as close to how I think they would change as possible, and keep it as true to the series as I can. Of course as always 'REVIEWS WELCOME' and if you like this story and want to show your appreciation for my efforts, you can donate a dollar to this charity: BDGiving (visit the site as a dot o r g). I have a simple philosophy to life, create more than you consume, and live in such a way that the world is better for you having been there. If both can be accomplished in one shot, so much the better. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed doing that, as much as I enjoyed writing it.**


	11. Through Others Eyes

**CHAPTER 3 INSIGHTS:**

'Well you really did it this time Remedios.' Gustav said sharply.

Her eyes tensed as he used her name without her title, but as she had begun to calm down she started to realize how badly she'd erred, but still she preferred not to see that and asked, 'How do you mean?'

'You attacked Neia Baraja in front of the King...in court...after a failed assassination attempt on her by a PRIEST! How do you think that looks?!' He shouted, glad that they were in an isolated room far from any prying eyes.

'I don't care! She's the servant of the undead! She's not one of us anymore!' Remedios snapped.

'What do you mean?' Gustav said darkly, his visage lowered to meet her gaze.

'If I put down a skeleton in court would you have said anything?' She asked.

'No.' He replied flatly.

'There's no difference.' She said, folding her arms defensively in front of her.

'There IS! Even if you don't see it, all the others DO! I don't care how much you hate that woman, you can't pretend whatever you want and expect all the world to go along with it!' He snapped, 'Wait here, I'll go see if I can smooth this over so you don't end up hanging beside that stupid priest.' Gustav said, and walked out without another word.

Remedios was about to protest that he was her subordinate, not the other way around...but the door slammed behind her and she was to shocked and embarrassed to follow, instead she paced the room like an angry lioness until he returned.

'The King ensured you would not be charged, your actions were treated as the response of sudden emotion, and ignorance of what the priest had done, rather than part of a conspiracy to eliminate Neia Baraja.' He said as he slammed the door behind him.

'What?' Remedios asked dumbly. 'How?' She asked.

'After you left, the King asked Neia to consider it as such to avoid embarrassment, Neia agreed and they're going to consider whether or not she should actually get the temple she wants.'

Remedios burned with unbridled wrath and stormed out, swearing just barely enough under her breath to not be considered shouting.

 **CHAPTER 4-5 INSIGHTS:**

The members of the council gathered around the table with King Caspond, who leaned back in a rather bored fashion. 'Well?' He asked. 'Do we grant her the temple and the trial of the priest or not?'

A priest standing next to Remedios...and Remedios herself immediately shouted 'NO!'

Count Handor however, had a different idea, 'Majesty if I might suggest something?'

Caspond gestured to Count Handor generously. 'Please do.'

'May I speak freely?' He asked the King.

'Please do.' Caspond replied.

'There is no viable way to deny them the temple now. Not without massive problems to come.' Count Handor said.

The priest began to sputter a denial and Remedios looked about to scream, but Handor raised a hand to silence him. 'Hear me out.'

'That does not mean we have to set a condition where their temple can actually thrive or survive.' The count continued.

This prompted the nobles to lean in and the priest and Paladin Order commander to take notice.

'Temples cannot survive without income or royal patronage.' He said. 'So lets grant them what they want, in exchange for taking no public issue with a private trial and the exile of the guilty priest to preserve the image of the temples...and frankly the Paladin Order. However...they cannot charge for healing, cannot build with public funds, and cannot gain any patronage from the crown.'

The priest looked rather pleased, those gathered around the table tried to imagine the temple trying to make ends meet without income, unable to afford services that allowed other temples to thrive, unable to support a priesthood of their own...but Remedios retained her furious look, 'We will be letting the wolves in among the sheep! This can't be allowed, Calca would never tolerate this! In her name we cannot have this travesty, this blasphemy! This...' She shouted until she was interrupted by a fist slamming on the table. 'I am the KING!' Caspon said violently, 'My royal sister IS dead! It is not HER decisions and what SHE would have done that rule here!' He shouted.

Remedios's eyes went wide with shock, and Gustav chimed in, 'Of course your majesty, we didn't mean to imply otherwise. Please excuse our Lady Commander, she is just concerned about the implications this has and for the legacy of your esteemed family.'

King Caspond nodded and began to rap his fingers on the table...'I understand...' He said. 'But the Count has a point. We can grant the request and then make granting it meaningless. Let it be done. We will try the priest privately and have him exiled, Remedios will not have to bear the public stain of having tried to slay Neia Baraja after the capture of the assassin...and they'll get a temple that...well won't last.' He said. 'Meeting adjourned.' Caspond said.

They walked out generally happy, except Remedios, who stared daggers at Count Handor until he mouthed silently to her, 'Meet me at the top of the North tower.'

She was confused, but stayed silent, and after gathered host was gone, as Gustav approached, she waved him off and said, 'I'm going to go cool off, we'll talk later.'

Gustav let out a sigh of relief, she hadn't blown up further, it was, as he saw it, a rare win.

Remedios however, did not go to cool off, she walked up the long circular stone steps of the North Tower, her footsteps echoed lightly as she walked, brooding and seething in silence as she imagined a black temple to the undead in the city of her precious Holy Queen Calca, she wanted to cry, to scream, to rage, to kill Neia Baraja, to beat Count Handor most of the way to death...but she was held in check by her curiousity, and when she arrived at the top of the tower, she found the door open, and nobody there. There was however, a bottle of wine and four glasses sitting on a decent but old wooden table.

She sat facing the door and waited...and waited...and waited, for how long, she wasn't sure, but long enough to almost give up before the echo of footsteps could be heard coming closer. Remedios tensed and clutched at her sword, until she saw the face of Count Handor, and began to relax, only to tense up again as two other figures in hoods appeared behind him.

As he came closer he said, 'Be at ease Remedios, no harm is intended I swear it.' Remedios did not grow any more at ease, but she didn't move and she did stay silent, the other two men sat quietly at the table with her, and Handor did the same. He took the wine and poured into each of the glasses.

'You didn't like what I did there, did you?' Count Handor said.

'What the fuck do you think?' Remedios replied sharply as the hoods of the two men came back, revealing relatively young faces of serious demeanor.

'They don't either.' Handor said, gesturing to the two men. 'And if I'm being truthful, well neither do I, but there wasn't any help for it, she was going to win that round thanks to you.' He finished speaking and slammed the bottle down.

Remedios looked outraged, but stayed quiet. 'You tried to kill her, it wasn't even subtle. To keep you out of prison and the priests from being humiliated, getting this concession was the only viable option, if we'd done anything else the whole city would know everything.' Handor said as he started to drink.

'But,' one man replied, drawing Remedios's eyes to him, 'it can be made right. We just have to make sure there is no attendance to the temple.'

Remedios looked at him in greater detail, he had smooth skin and blonde hair, as well as an olive complexion offset by bright blue eyes, but what she really liked, was what he said. 'Explain.' She said.

'Kill all of them, and there will be no one to build it, or to go even if it were built, its really your only chance.' He said.

'Kill humans?' Remedios said in shock.

'They're not humans anymore.' The other man said, his eyes were brown and hard, and his skin lighter and bearing scars over parts of his hands and face, his voice was gravel like and rough, in contrast to the smooth silken speech of his companion, 'They serve the undead, they are monsters, yes they wear the skins of men, but they are demons in disguise. They are servants of evil.' He said.

Remedios looked surprised, 'If you found a human working with Jaldabaoth, who was hoping for profit or power, and he had Queen Calca prisoner, what would you do to free her? Would you strike down such a human?' The silk voiced man said.

'I...yes...I'm a Paladin, I have to protect the innocent.' Remedios said.

'Are the demihumans who served Jaldabaoth innocent?' The man with a gravel voice asked.

'NO!' She snapped.

'What about those who side with the undead, they'll kill the innocent, they'll kill the children on dark alters to their evil god, they'll burn down everything and offer the ashes to the undead as tribute.' He continued.

'...that...' the silk voiced man said, 'and they will trample all over Queen Calca's memory, how can anyone be human, if they don't follow Queen Calca's ideals?' He asked.

Remedios didn't have a good answer.

'They're less than human. They brought this on themselves.' Count Handor said, pouring another drink in each glass.

'You're not killing humans, you're setting the souls of the damned free of the undead's control, they're no different than the undead themselves, they just look human, inside they're demihumans, spiritual heteromorphs who don't value the world your precious Queen Calca tried so hard to create for all her people.' The silk voiced man said.

Remedios began to weep softly and her gaze went down...'Calca...Calca...'

'How can they be human, see how you, a person, respond to the wishes of your loving just Queen?' The gravel voiced man said, 'Yet they celebrate the undead, they cheer his name and not hers, only the undead, demons, or spiritual heteromorphs would do that, can you just imagine it...the great black temple of Ainz Ooal Gown, his name shouted in praise as the undead move beside his worshipers, Neia Baraja before a dark alter intoning his name, the cheers growing, the crowds growing, Calca's memory fading every day until nothing about her matters anymore except to you, and her ideals thrown out like so much garbage to be trampled underfoot by heteromorphs in human skin?'

Remedios's face turned red as tears flowed down her cheeks...'No...No...NOT CALCA...NO!' She choked out through her tears as she imagined the world without Calca's beliefs.

'They'll do it, they're raising spiritual heteromorphs, they're praising Ainz, they're praising Neia...there is nothing left of Queen Calca in them, nothing left of humanity in them, they're just evil wrapped in skin, all of them.' The silk voiced man said.

'But what can I do?!' Remedios said as she drank another glass, 'I messed up, but even I can't kill everyone by myself, and only some of my fellow Paladins are with me.' She said.

'They're going to get the news about the building of their temple soon.' Count Handor said, 'They'll be happy, distracted, I and some of the other nobles will lend you soldiers, and these men represent the interests of the gods, they have worked to build connections to all the faithful, and they are willing to offer their lives, if you will lead the charge and pierce the evils wrapped in false human skins with your holy sword, they will follow you.' Count Handor said softly.

'If you don't strike for justice, for Queen Calca, your whole country will end up as the slaves of the undead, these aren't people, these are the spiritually dead, these are the minions of death, heteromorphs hiding behind false skins. They know the evil that they do, and they do it willingly, this is your last big chance to protect Queen Calca. You failed her in life...' The silk voiced man said.

'Now will you fail her legacy to humanity too?' The gravel voiced man finished.

Remedios stood up suddenly, her eyes wide with horror, 'NO! Not that! Not again!' She said, as if she were holding the remnants of Calca's shredded and battered corpse all over again. 'Yes, you're right, I've got to slave these spiritual heteromorphs, these monsters, before they bring a new evil on all of us!' She snapped, 'Have your people ready tonight, Neia Baraja and Black Justice will be dead by DAWN!' She snapped, and the three men raised their glasses and finished the wine.

 **PERSPECTIVES 1:**

The thug ran along the road, armed to the teeth and ready to kill, he'd been part of many a bandit gang in the past, even one during Jaldabaoth's invasion that had preyed on humans trying to escape, but nothing like this, nothing this big, and he was sure the Black Justice people had plenty worth stealing, when he'd been given the chance for a certain massacre, he took it, and now it was happening, inside the city no less. He'd been thinking happy thoughts all the way to the slaughter as one column after another broke off to their assigned positions...until his hit a wall...literally. A huge pile of barrels was blocking the way forward. 'Get those barrels out of the way!' Someone shouted...and several ran up to do exactly that, but they hadn't even moved four of them when several flaming arrows sprouted in them and set the...apparently very flammable contents, on fire. His expression went from joy to shock, which only increased when several more arrows came from above and behind him and struck his companions. They glanced up, and there along the rooftops were barely illuminated figures, people...armed with bows, and they began to fire with impunity and the densely packed ranks he found himself trapped in, what had been strength, now became weakness,and corpses began to form, they'd planned on stabbing some people in their sleep, not...this, so almost nobody had a ranged weapon like a bow or sling, a few tried to throw their spears, but in the dense mass, little could be done. Panic set in, he pushed and shoved, and people began to run back the way they came, only to find another cart moved into their path, overturned, and lit aflame. Shouting became panic filled as arrows came down like rain, and an arrow pierced his eye, and then he knew no more.

 **PERSPECTIVES 2:**

Paladin Yangi marched behind Remedios with his shoulders squared and with a deep sense of pride, he was going to execute the justice of the gods, and most importantly he was going to execute the will of Lady Commander Remedios Custodio. He'd been watching her since his earliest days in training as a squire, and he'd been instantly smitten, he'd doubled and redoubled his efforts, trying to bring his skill and power up to equal her own, and he'd done very well...but it was never enough. He desperately wanted to tell her how much he loved her, how he couldn't take his eyes off her, but until he had a strength to equal hers, he couldn't bring himself to speak his heart. Perhaps with this though, with this service to the gods, he could show...truly SHOW what he felt for her, and bring himself to say what he'd always wished he could. That was what he was thinking, until he heard a loud distant popping noise, and the head of the man beside him exploded, sending brain matter over his armor, he saw Remedios shout at someone and take off running, and then the sound of clashing and charging figures hit, he found himself fending off swords being stabbed and slashed at him with shocking speed, he tried to fight, he used all the martial arts he knew, but every time he reached, a free hand pulled him off balance, somehow his opponent controlled the flow of battle, and he could hear the twang of bows as arrows seemed to hit the people behind him, in the darkness of night, he could only hope for more fire to help him understand what he was facing, the chain of command had fallen apart, the massacre that was to be, had instead become a pitched battle, and Yangi fought like there was no tomorrow.

And when the sword penetrated his throat, there was none, not for him.

 **CHAPTER 6-7 INSIGHTS:**

Remedios fumed inside her prison cell, her holy sword was gone, her armor was gone, her chains were tight and she was secured against the wall with arms and legs out, wearing little but a brown sack with holes in it for her head and her limbs, and a lecherous guard kept looking through the door at her. It was cold, it was uncomfortable, it was not what she deserved.

'I'll kill them, I'll kill them, I'll kill them, I'll kill all the demihumans, I'll kill all the undead and the undead servants, I'll stop everything, I'll save her...legacy...my precious Calca...my Queen...I swear it isn't over...' She said softly, hour after hour, as the faces of men revealed themselves to be merely the coverings of monsters, 'They were right...those were all monsters...those who serve the undead are monsters...evil monsters, I have to save my people from the monsters...I'm a paladin, I have to protect the innocent...those who make themselves monsters are not innocent, they're wolves dressed as sheep, demihumans dressed as people...they're evil, and I must fight all evil, no matter what it looks like.' She said to herself, until her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of screams echoing throughout the city, it was loud, it was long, and through the window bars she saw great orange light, the light of fire, and large fires at that, and then the sound of shouting and crashing of metal and stone, and voices echoed beyond her cell.

She stayed silent, but looked at the door. 'Remedios, Commander where are you?!' A voice well known to her shouted, 'Here! In here!' she yelled, and soon she saw Gustav fumbling at the door, his face looking at her with relief from the other side of the bars, his gaze didn't linger, it darted down and she heard the sound of him fumbling with keys.

'We're getting you out of here!' He said. 'What of the priest?' Remedios said sharply.

'I've sent another team to rescue him, but listen I don't have long,' as the door swung open he dashed in and began to work on her chains, 'Count Handor introduced me to some people, with a little help from them and some of our own, we've started some fires as a distraction, and we've taken out the guards here, I sent people to rescue the priest who tried to kill Neia, but now we've got to get you out before anybody notices anything is wrong.' Gustav said in a rushed and swift voice as he got the last of her chains undone, she fell forward into his arms, and he helped to stead her.

'Your armor is gone,' he said, 'as is your sword, but this should do for you,' he gestured to the door and some paladins entered carrying some equipment for her, 'Get into it quickly, a few of our number are going to ride out with you, but you've got to go in a hurry, the first aren't a big danger, they just look threatening, once you're free, go do what you need to do.' Gustav said. 'Are you coming?' Remedios asked as she got her armor strapped on faster than she ever had before.

'No.' He said, 'I'm being appointed as your replacement, I'll feed you what information I can, but one of us has to be here in the city. For now, the few going with you will seem to be the only rogue elements, now go, I have got to go fight fires.' He said, and quickly gave her a salute, which she returned, for a moment, silence reigned, and then he rushed out back the way he came, and Remedios and the few remaining Paladins hurried out of the prison, and found horses waiting for her and her companions, they leaped on and spurred them as fast as they could, all the way out the gate,and they did not stop until there were many miles between themselves and the city.

 **CHAPTER 8-9 INSIGHTS:**

 **PERSPECTIVES 1:**

Grelkor walked past the skeleton, and for the thousandth time he was surprised it didn't attack him. The first night had been the worst, it passed by his home every few minutes or so, wearing nothing but the cloth bearing the mark that the formerly living person had participated in the attempted massacre of Black Justice, and it gave him the willies, he stood at his window and watched it walk past over and over again carrying goods and supplies back and forth along the same route, never looking at anyone else, it seemed to never carry less than several full grown men, and it did not tire in doing so. By the time Grelkor got ready to rest, it was still working, and he found himself rising every now and then to go to the window to see if it was still walking past his home...and it still was, seemingly without pause. That night he'd barely slept as a result of the shock, but in the morning...he got up, walked out the door, and walked past the skeleton like it wasn't there. The shock was still present, but reduced to mere surprise, like a friend coming behind him and saying 'boo' not the visceral terror he'd first felt.

'Perhaps this undead labor isn't so bad after all, if I had labor like that on the farm, I could feed a city almost by myself.' He said as he walked off to work.

 **PERSPECTIVES 2:**

Tani was a priest of the gods, and this was most definitely not the will of the gods. She tried to bless the skeleton, but it did not fall, she tried to attack the skeleton, and it only held up a small truncheon, blocked her blow, and then went on its way...she tried to call the guards and warn them of the undead, but most of the guards were now Black Justice members and they'd laughed it off, they'd only grown concerned when she said she'd tried to attack the skeleton to bring it down...that was how she'd ended up being arrested and brought before a judge who had imposed a fifty silver fine on her. 'Its UNDEAD!' She shouted.

'Are you dead?' The judge asked.

'No.' She said.

'Are you undead?' The judge asked.

'No.' She said again.

'Are you doing the work that the skeleton was doing?' The judge asked.

'No.' She said.

'Then leave it alone and let it work, it has work to be done and can't be bothered to stop for every paranoid fear mongering priest, these undead are controlled and will not do anyone any harm, just let them work so that the city can be restored. That will be a 50 silver fine, 10 for the cost of the court, and 40 to Black Justice for attempting to damage their labor force and slowing their reconstruction efforts.' The judge said, and Tani stood aghast at the ruling, she was still in shock as she mutely took 50 coins out of the temple coffers, put them into two sacks, and had them sent to the respective parties...thus making herself the first person to ever pay a fine for attacking the Undead in the history of the world. It was not a place in history that she sought for herself.

 **AN: Well I hope you've enjoyed this side story, and that you liked this glimpse into the minds of other actors and agents along the way, I added this as a kind of 'bonus' to give you a look at how others were treating the events they were observing, and of course, fill in a rather important piece on Remedios's escape, and what finally drove her to act in extreme violence for her beliefs, in a way that may have otherwise seemed shocking to her. I did toy with having a few extra perspectives here, like that of the agents of the Slane Theocracy, but I decided to save that for 'Memory & a Message' and possibly a glimpse into their responses during 'God Rising' when more and more news is filtering into their capitol about what is going on in the Holy Kingdom. So if you wanted that, well be patient.**

 **In the meantime, reviews are welcome and I hope you enjoyed this update. Of course there is no 'epilogue' to this, since it is just a side story explaining the events in the short time within the ongoing epic of God Rising. As it is, 'this' story is now considered 'complete' while God Rising will continue for quite some time.**

 **If you want to see more, well rest assured, there is much more to come! Assuming of course, people tell me in the reviews that its still worth reading!**


	12. Author Afterword

**Let's end this the classical way...**

 **-The End-**

 **Author Afterward**

 **Well this story was a whole lot of fun to write, thanks everybody who was reading it, but 'this' story is finished for now. I do have thoughts of doing another short chapter insert for it, but honestly, its not really necessary, Training in Time, is now fundamentally finished. Might go back and tweak a few lines for my own satisfaction, but that'd be it.**

 **Thanks to all of you who read this branch story off of 'God Rising: The Cult of Ainz' and I hope you enjoyed it, please leave a review if you did, positive feed back is a powerful incentive to do more creative work. (I really wish the website would offer a 'star' rating system or something)**

 **Anyway, all the best to all of you, and double kudos to those of you who recognized the myriad of references to various historical works, strategies, training methods, and so on, trust me, the story is even better if you get the references.**

 **For now, it is back to advancing 'God Rising' and the new branch story, 'The Queen in the Sword' which I ALMOST titled, "The Madness of Remedios", see you there, if this story was worth your time that is. :)**


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